303 Jason Wachob on Creating a Wealth of Wellness in Your Life

"I do not believe in a one-size-fits-all approach to health and wellness." - Jason Wachob If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/303 Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 303 with founder of MindBodyGreen.com, Jason Wachob. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week, we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 0:34Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone to this episode number 303. Thank you so much for being here. I am so pumped because I just, I feel like I have like the luckiest life because I get to sit across the table from just brilliant minds and pick their brain and learn about their mistakes and their success stories. And I get to share them with all of you. This is the favorite part of my day is when I get to make these connections. I get to grow myself personally and then I get to share with all of you what I learned along the way. And I just feel so blessed and grateful that you guys continue to show up and listen and support this podcast. It means the world to me and I just, I feel like such a blessed human being.

• 1:16Lewis Howes?

  So, thank you for spreading the message. Again, we are in 303 episodes now and it just keeps getting better. Each week, I meet new amazing people and I continue to feel like the luckiest guy alive. So, thank you for being a part of this journey with me. And our guest today, his name is Jason Wachob. He is the founder and CEO of MindBodyGreen.com, which is a huge health and wellness site that gets over 12 million unique visitors a month, has over 4,000 contributors. It's really the authority in the health and wellness space online. And he's been featured in The New York Times, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, and Vogue, and all over the place.

• 2:01Lewis Howes?

  He has a BA in History from Columbia University, where he played varsity basketball for four years there. And in his book, Wealth, How I Learned Learned to Build a Life, Not a Resume is out right now and we cover a lot of things about his experiences and where he came from and where he is now, including how he shifted from earning $800,000 a year as a trader on Wall Street to starting his own business with Mind Body Green and why he left that lucrative job on Wall Street to doing Mind Body Green, working in a company where you are passionate about and really how to come from passion and

• 2:43Lewis Howes?

  skill and not just focus on the money upfront and why that's important. The importance of company culture, I don't care if you have a company of hundreds of employees or three employees, the importance of building that and Jason talks about how he's done it. Also, establishing a trustworthy brand, how to build and establish a trustworthy brand and what it's like to work with your wife or partner in your relationship in business. He covers how he handles this, working with his wife in his company as well. This and so much more on today's episode. Thank you guys for being here. All the show notes, the full video interview, back at lewishouse.com/303.

• 3:27Lewis Howes?

  And without further ado, let's go ahead and dive into this episode with the one, the only, Jason Wachob.

• 3:37Lewis Howes?

  Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness Podcast. Very excited about our guest. His name is Jason Wachob. He's got a new book out called Wealth. Make sure to check it out right now. It's Wealth, How I Learned to Build a Life, Not a Resume. Thanks so much for being here. I appreciate it.

• 3:51Speaker 01

  Thanks so much for having me, Lewis.

• 3:52Lewis Howes?

  Pumped to have you. I was in your office, Mind Body Green office, probably eight months ago or something, talking about my books. Now you're here talking about your book and I'm gonna place it here so people can see it in the video as well. So you got this new book out. I'm curious, what inspired you to write this book in the first place?

• 4:12Speaker 01

  So I'm 41 and two years ago, my 39th birthday, I woke up in the morning and I decided I wanted to write a blog post. So I wrote a blog post, 39 life lessons I've learned in 39 years. Stream of consciousness just sort of happened, posted incredibly well, went viral. And a couple of days later, a literary agent wrote to the general inbox of my buddy Green and said, you know, read your blog posts. I think there's a book here, you know, love to talk to you. And so I never wrote back. I thought like, yeah, this isn't a book. It's a blog. I'm not naive to this stuff. I got enough going on. I don't have the time for this. So never wrote back. And then a couple

• 4:53Speaker 01

  of weeks later, she sent a package to the office with a letter saying, here's a book. You should read this book. I think your book could be in similar structure and format and take a look at it. And so I was traveling the next day, actually going to Ohio and I read the book on a flight. And then I, after I read the book, I was like, holy cow, I think I can write a book.

• 5:13Lewis Howes?

  Wow, okay.

• 5:14Speaker 01

  And then signed with her and that was it. So the blog post, I never really intended to write a book and it just happened.

• 5:20Lewis Howes?

  And what was the book she gave you?

• 5:22Speaker 01

  It was Regina Brett, God Never Blinks.

• 5:25Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 5:25Speaker 01

  Like 50 life lessons from 50 something.

• 5:28Lewis Howes?

  Similar type of book.

• 5:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. And supposedly like a great bestseller written from a woman in Ohio, wrote like a daily column and.

• 5:36Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 5:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:37Lewis Howes?

  There you go.

• 5:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:38Lewis Howes?

  So that was like, okay, let's do this.

• 5:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, I said, yeah, never met with another agent and just started writing.

• 5:43Lewis Howes?

  Okay. Now you played basketball at Columbia, right? Columbia University?

• 5:47Speaker 01

  Yes, sir. Yeah.

• 5:48Lewis Howes?

  For how many years?

• 5:49Speaker 01

  Four years.

• 5:50Lewis Howes?

  Four years?

• 5:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:51Lewis Howes?

  And you got injured too, right? You had a career injury?

• 5:53Speaker 01

  Lots of injuries that I'm still walking around with. I'm in one piece.

• 5:57Lewis Howes?

  Exactly. But did it, did you have an injury that ended everything for you?

• 6:01Speaker 01

  No, it was a number of little things. I had a third degree ankle sprain, which has still screwed up my right ankle for life, dislocated shoulders, started to develop back pain.

• 6:14Speaker 01

  But didn't realize how bad it was until it really hit me later on in life.

• 6:18Lewis Howes?

  But you're also six, what, six, seven?

• 6:19Speaker 01

  Six, seven, yeah.

• 6:20Lewis Howes?

  You're pretty tall.

• 6:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I walked out of that feeling pretty good that I could, I was in one piece.

• 6:25Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 6:25Speaker 01

  I do yoga now, I'm retired.

• 6:27Lewis Howes?

  Yes, professionally yogi.

• 6:29Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 6:29Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, okay. What do you think was the biggest lesson you learned from your sports experience?

• 6:34Speaker 01

  God, so much. You know, I talk about this a lot at work. I think I learned more from playing basketball in college than I ever did it in school. Or about being an entrepreneur, a CEO, like, yeah, like, things, I think little things like you take for granted, like showing up on time.

• 6:48Lewis Howes?

  Of course, yeah. Can't show up late at practice.

• 6:51Speaker 01

  Right, work ethic, passion. You can't turn it on and off. You know, my coach would always, you know, get on us, you know, if you were dogging in practice, like, you can't just go through the motions in practice and turn it on the game. You gotta play hard all the time.

• 7:04Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 7:04Speaker 01

  Uh, you know, I think I learned a lot about losing, how you handle losing. When I got to Columbia, we were terrible. We lost a lot.

• 7:12Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 7:12Speaker 01

  And, uh, you know, my coach, Armon Hill, who I talk about in the book, who's now with the Clippers, uh, you know, he would get on us. He'd say, listen, a couple of things, guys, like, one, like, losing says a lot about your character. Like, how do you handle losing? Can you rise above it? Do you blame people? Very easy to blame other people when you're losing. Do you get used to it? Do you become complacent? You will lose, you know, you can't, it's got to upset you, but how do you react? Do you react, uh, as a team? Do you grow stronger together? Uh, and leaving Columbia, we actually started to win. Felt good about that, became, you know, pretty decent and just, uh,

• 7:48Speaker 01

  you know, I, I think, learned a lot about how you handle adversity and losing. Very easy when things, when you're winning, when things are going great, but how you react in adversity and dealing with losing is.

• 7:58Lewis Howes?

  It's interesting because, you know, I don't know if you watch UFC at all.

• 8:02Speaker 01

  I do not.

• 8:03Lewis Howes?

  I don't usually watch it, but Conor McGregor is just like fascinating to like, watch him talk and. And and you know, fight and just how he positioned himself as a branding, you know, it's incredible for me. So I watched his last fight where he lost, where he was like, hasn't lost in three years or something. And he talks so much about how he's gonna win every time. And the way he handled it was incredible.

• 8:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:27Lewis Howes?

  Like, the way he was like, I'm gonna learn from this. I'm gonna take it like a man. And my competitor was incredible and big props to him. And this is just gonna make me stronger.

• 8:37Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 8:37Lewis Howes?

  I was like, that's a great way to look at it. As opposed to, uh, well, I jumped up two weight cla- he jumped up two weight classes. I jumped up two weight classes. Excuse, excuse, excuse. He was like, nope, he beat me. I wanna learn from it, get better.

• 8:49Speaker 01

  Accountability.

• 8:50Lewis Howes?

  That's it. And it was, it was shocking, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised to see that. But that's it. A lot of people, especially entrepreneurs, will blame things or they'll blame whatever else is happening on. So.

• 9:02Speaker 01

  You gotta let it sting, take the lesson and move on.

• 9:05Lewis Howes?

  That's it. Yeah. Who was the most influential person in your life growing up?

• 9:09Speaker 01

  God, a lot of them. You know, I don't know if there's one, you know, my mother, deeply influential. Parents divorced when I was, when I was young. Uh, you know, my mother was everything. You know, I think I never, you know, something I definitely don't take for granted is this idea, you know, as a kid, my mother was a type of, of parent who, who led me to believe I could accomplish anything. You know, if you work hard, you can do it. Everything's possible. And, uh, you know, something you don't realize as a kid, but like, that's really powerful. Not everyone has that. And I think, uh, you know, I became an eternal optimist. Uh, she, she mentally trained me to be an optimist, whether I knew it or not. And it's something a lot of people don't have. And so she was deeply influential. I'd say her and then, you know, various coaches along the way. I think you

• 9:54Speaker 01

  always learn more from the bad ones than the good ones sometimes.

• 9:57Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh. I had some horrible coaches. I had some really bad, a college football, one of my college football coaches, the first one, he just constantly yelled at me, constantly swore at me, constantly like broke me down and I was just like, this is not working for me.

• 10:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:12Lewis Howes?

  You're not getting the best out of me by doing this. There's some coaches that know how to talk to each person on a team.

• 10:17Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 10:18Lewis Howes?

  In a way that's going to resonate to get them to be their best.

• 10:20Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 10:21Lewis Howes?

  Whereas this coach just talks the same way to everyone.

• 10:24Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 10:24Lewis Howes?

  For some people it might work, but I think an effective leader learns how to communicate to each person.

• 10:30Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 10:30Lewis Howes?

  And understand where they're at.

• 10:31Speaker 01

  No one size fits all approach to anything in life.

• 10:33Lewis Howes?

  Exactly. So what was the most important lesson you learned from your mom? Was it to be positive or?

• 10:40Speaker 01

  You know, I, I think it's, you know, something I talk a lot about in the book and it's a big part of my life is, is having a gratitude practice.

• 10:47Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 10:47Speaker 01

  And this idea, you know, I remember as a kid, like, you know, complaining about something, you know, I thought, you know, someone over here had it better than we did and my mother, you know, spoke of the parable, uh, the boy with, with, uh, with no shoes cried until he met the boy with no feet.

• 11:03Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 11:04Speaker 01

  And this idea of, of really being grateful for what you have, uh, really important lesson. There's, you know, especially in life, I'm a type A, you're a type A, you know, we're used to, you know, you're working hard, you're kicking ass, you're taking names, you have goals, you're used to reaching them. But it's also this idea of balancing that with just being grateful for what you have.

• 11:25Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 11:26Speaker 01

  You know, it's very, it's very easy to get lost in that. And I think there's always someone who, who has more, whether it's money or always say a perceived better relationships. I think with relationships, everyone always thinks someone has a better relationship, um, you know, better abs, better, bigger home. And I think it's very easy to get caught up in that.

• 11:44Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 11:45Speaker 01

  So how do you balance that? Like if you're, i- i- i- if you're a person who's really passionate, who has goals, who works hard, how do you passion that with this idea of just being grateful? I think it's a balance. And I think we, we all struggle with it. And so I learned a lot about that, like this idea of pushing versus pulling and being thankful.

• 12:03Lewis Howes?

  Sure. Do you have a ritual routine every single day that with gratitude, but everything else? Like you said, yoga, what is that?

• 12:09Speaker 01

  Yeah. So literally I wake up and I repeat, thank you, thank you, over and over in my head mentally silently. I just have done it for years. Uh, you know, I, I just do it before, before my, my feet touch the ground, I repeat, thank you over and over. I literally have it on our, our wall at home. Have a gratitude, a mural from a friend, Peter Tunney, the artist, gratitude with two Ts. He says it's gratitude is an attitude. Have that at our office at work. So I see that, you know, the first thing in the morning, I repeat, thank you and thank you over and over. And then I brush my teeth and I meditate for 20 minutes, then I'm off to the day.

• 12:48Lewis Howes?

  Off to the office.

• 12:49Speaker 01

  Yeah. Cause you know, it's one of those things you just, you don't wanna, especially living in the city, you don't wanna wake up and next thing you know, you're, you're running late and you're catching the subway and someone bumps you and then you know, asshole, I missed the train, I'm late. Then you know, nine AM, it's like mentally you're in a different space, your day's ruined.

• 13:06Lewis Howes?

  You've already messed up. Yeah. So what happened with you after, after basketball and after Columbia? What, what did you go through before Mind Body Green?

• 13:14Speaker 01

  Sure. Uh, so keep in mind, I graduated in 1998. So back then there weren't really startups. There was, there was no, you know, entrepreneurs, uh, didn't really exist in that sense.

• 13:25Lewis Howes?

  There weren't blogs really or websites?

• 13:27Speaker 01

  No, there was nothing. I remember when like, we just got email at Columbia, what is this? We can email professors and tell them we're gonna turn the paper in late? This is fantastic.

• 13:36Speaker 01

  And so back then, you know, guys either went to Wall Street. They maybe became a lawyer if they had grades or if they had an aptitude for science. Maybe they went to med school. Uh, I didn't have grades and I didn't come for money. And so I was like, I'll go to Wall Street. I need to make some money here, pay off my school loans. Like I saw money as, as freedom, as money was something I always wanted. Uh, so became a trader. And, uh, You know, learn pretty quickly. My second year made eight hundred thousand dollars, which

• 14:06Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 14:07Speaker 01

  Second year.

• 14:07Lewis Howes?

  Second year?

• 14:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:09Lewis Howes?

  Twenty five year old kid making eight hundred grand.

• 14:11Speaker 01

  Uh, and

• 14:12Lewis Howes?

  That's pretty good.

• 14:13Speaker 01

  It was, it was good. It was, this was in two thousand.

• 14:16Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 14:17Speaker 01

  And so saw the NASDAQ go from like eighteen hundred to five thousand and I saw it go back down too. Uh, but at any rate,

• 14:24Lewis Howes?

  You were living like a king.

• 14:25Speaker 01

  Yes, I was living in a small apartment in Chelsea. I didn't spend money on anything.

• 14:29Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 14:30Speaker 01

  I spent, I spent a lot of money on,

• 14:31Lewis Howes?

  Food and experiences.

• 14:32Speaker 01

  Food and restaurants and a lot of, a lot of booze.

• 14:34Lewis Howes?

  You're probably stacking the money then, saving.

• 14:38Speaker 01

  Lot of drinking and going out.

• 14:41Lewis Howes?

  Okay, maybe not say that. He blew a lot of it.

• 14:44Speaker 01

  I did. It lasted a long time though.

• 14:46Lewis Howes?

  That's good.

• 14:47Speaker 01

  And so learn very quickly, you know, here was something I always wanted to make money and then boom, I have this, you know, I remember it was my second month. I made like two hundred eighty thousand dollars, huge month.

• 14:59Lewis Howes?

  Two hundred eighty grand in a month.

• 15:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:01Lewis Howes?

  Uh, Second month working.

• 15:02Speaker 01

  I still, I still have yet to.

• 15:04Lewis Howes?

  Second month working?

• 15:05Speaker 01

  No, no, no, no, no, no. Second month and second, it was the second month of uh,

• 15:08Lewis Howes?

  Second year.

• 15:08Speaker 01

  That year, yeah.

• 15:09Lewis Howes?

  Oh, wow.

• 15:09Speaker 01

  Where I made the eight hundred. Um, and so at the same time, my relationship was falling apart. And so I was a mess. I was miserable and it was such a contrast. It's like, okay, on one hand, I always wanted to make money. I worked hard and it was finally, you know, arriving, so to speak, paid off all my college debt, you know, bought my mom a car, all this great stuff. And then on the other hand, like this relationship, which I thought was the relationship was falling apart and I was a mess. And I'm like, this money buys happiness thing. It's just not there. I would, I would have given anything at that moment to go back just to making what I was making and have this relationship be intact.

• 15:46Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 15:47Speaker 01

  And so it was a big eye opener, you know, like, I'm not happy.

• 15:53Speaker 01

  And so that that happened and you know, I did like trading. It was a great experience. You know, it was like playing sports again. Every day was a game. I liked the competitive nature. It was it was great.

• 16:02Lewis Howes?

  For the guys involved or something.

• 16:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was all like a lot of great people. And then nine eleven happened a couple of years later and then I was sort of done like I had one foot out the door at that moment. I just, you know, it felt the yearning for to do something else. You know, I thought there I wasn't really creating value in the world. I was just making money and like I started leaving work early. You know, read about people, you know, starting businesses that they were passionate about and this idea of, you know, life and work becoming one. And that wasn't me. I was checked out. I was already out the door. And so I decided that I needed to move on.

• 16:36Lewis Howes?

  What do you think of the building blocks of wealth?

• 16:38Speaker 01

  Wow, uh, you know, I think that wealth is a blend of mental, physical, spiritual, emotional and environmental wellbeing. And so, you know, I think the way I see true wellness, it's this blend. I don't think it's just, you know, self-help. I don't think it's just fitness or just nutrition or just the environment or just business. I think all these things are interconnected.

• 17:08Speaker 01

  Becoming our best self. And so I sort of leave like the building box. I think as we touched on, I don't think there's any, I don't think there's a one size fits all approach to anything. And so I think that each individual has to decide, you know, which elements are important to them, where they're lacking, where they're not. And decide, you know, where they need to make change in their life. In a lot of ways, you know, I think wealth is the book that I wish I had 15 years ago when I was going through this, where I would just would go to Barnes and Noble and just read anything I could read on becoming a better person, a healthier person. And, uh, you know, and I think that was important to me when I did this. You know, how do we reach people who aren't in this space?

• 17:53Lewis Howes?

  Right, right. So how did Mindbody Green come about then?

• 17:56Speaker 01

  Sure. So, so I left, I left Wall Street, became an entrepreneur, had some things that that didn't work. The cliche is true. You learn more from the failures. And so.

• 18:09Speaker 01

  I was running an organic chocolate chip cookie company that was in every Whole Foods in the country.

• 18:13Lewis Howes?

  Sounds amazing.

• 18:14Speaker 01

  Yes and no. Cookies were fantastic.

• 18:17Lewis Howes?

  The business of making cookies was hard, huh?

• 18:19Speaker 01

  The business and it's the only business, the natural products business, uh, where what you invoice is not what you get paid.

• 18:24Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 18:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:25Lewis Howes?

  That's hilarious.

• 18:26Speaker 01

  It's fascinating.

• 18:28Lewis Howes?

  And you don't get paid for six months.

• 18:29Speaker 01

  Oh, God, net, net thirty is like net ninety and, and it's a, it's tough business, but, but, um, so I was running that business and doing a lot of flying that year. I flew almost a hundred and fifty thousand miles domestic. I'm six foot seven.

• 18:42Lewis Howes?

  That's misery.

• 18:44Speaker 01

  It is.

• 18:44Lewis Howes?

  You have a back problem just from that year.

• 18:46Speaker 01

  Well, yeah, so my back got really bad. So I had two extruded discs pressing on my sciatic nerve. So L four, L five, S one.

• 18:53Lewis Howes?

  You gotta go.

• 18:54Speaker 01

  I could see you.

• 18:55Lewis Howes?

  I'm six four and I know the pain of flying just six four. So I can only imagine. I'm already against the thing, you know, if I fly coach. Luckily, you know, I've got so many points that I get upgraded almost every time.

• 19:08Speaker 01

  I do that all the time now. I don't wait.

• 19:09Lewis Howes?

  It's just like, it's just not worth it. I'd rather spend an extra five hundred bucks than be in pain and miserable.

• 19:15Speaker 01

  Yeah. So that was me. Uh, could not, could not walk. So, uh, excruciating sciatic on my right leg, uh, could not walk, uh.

• 19:24Lewis Howes?

  And then when you're going to meetings on these trips, you're probably not fully present or you're not fully healthy.

• 19:28Speaker 01

  Your back's bad. You can't, it's everything. It's everything. Um, so went to a doctor. He's did an MRI and X-ray and you know, said you have these extruded discs. You need back surgery. Non-negotiable. So like, okay, let me get a second opinion.

• 19:42Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 19:42Speaker 01

  So, saw the second opinion. Uh, he said the same thing. You need back surgery, you know, maybe a cortisone shot will help. Uh, I tried that, didn't do anything. And he said, you know, maybe some yoga or therapy could help, but you still need surgery.

• 19:55Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 19:56Speaker 01

  So I was like, okay, you know, I'll, I'll try yoga. I'll see what happens. So started doing some really light yoga, you know, ten, fifteen minutes in the morning, at night. Started to, to explore like stress, sleep, nutrition, the environment, all these things affected health. And so this is all happening simult- simultaneously and

• 20:13Lewis Howes?

  while you're writing a cookie business.

• 20:15Speaker 01

  Yeah. So I'm starting to feel better. And then over the course of weeks, you know, starting to walk better, the pain is moving up the leg, which is always a thing with back pain, like the further south it goes, the worse, the further north it goes, the better. Right, right. And then over the course of months, I'm fine. So I've never gotten surgery. No surgery. Totally fine. So yoga practice, sleep, nutrition. Nutrition, you know, I was a guy who, you know, I looked great at the time, but I was a mess, like. Eating fast food everywhere. I, I, so I ate so much steak and I still eat meat, but not a lot of it. I ate so much steak at the Palm Steakhouse in the west side of Manhattan that my caricature is on the wall. Wow. One year, so it's like Adam Sandler, Joe Namath and. No way. And me, yeah. Wow. That's how much steak, so my idea of health was steak and like 10 martinis. Oh my gosh.

• 21:00Speaker 01

  And so started eating more plants, like started to look at like the power of spirituality and having, you know, and, and the environment and all these things were interconnected. And I was like, whoa, everyone's got this thing wrong. Like I was, my mind was blown, this happened to me. And the other thing, like a spiritual level, you know, I started, I found out about the chakra system. Mm hmm. And I read something like the root chakra, the lower back is associated with like money worries and like, I was broke at the time and getting engaged, I had no money to buy the ring. I'm like, oh my God, this stuff all makes sense. It's not crazy. Well, it's like one of those things where you say things like out there, a new age, then when it hits home, you're like, holy shit, what else is, what else, you know, and you can't get enough of it. And, and I was like, everyone's got health wrong.

• 21:42Speaker 01

  Everyone, every print magazine is about vanity and weight loss and it's this lifestyle. It's my buddy green. No one's talking about this for like the normal people like me. And then launched the site and the rest is. Wow. What year was this? So 2007, we had the idea for the site. I found my, my co-founders, Tim and Carver, and we were both doing like different things and it was a, it was in beta, like a side gig. And then 2009 is when we officially launched. Really? Yeah, September of 09. So we've been at this for a while, started with a blog post today.

• 22:11Lewis Howes?

  I've had this for a while, but also not that long at the same time. You know, it's like, you know, you've been at, what is it, seven years now you've been on it? But you've built an incredible business. You've got how many employees now?

• 22:22Speaker 01

  Thirty-three, I think.

• 22:23Lewis Howes?

  Thirty-three employees, plus many more contributors, I'm assuming.

• 22:26Speaker 01

  Four thousand.

• 22:27Lewis Howes?

  Four thousand contributing writers.

• 22:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:29Lewis Howes?

  Amazing. And how much content are you putting out every day now?

• 22:31Speaker 01

  I think we do twelve to fourteen pieces a day.

• 22:34Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha. You do events, you've got courses, you've got, it's expanded many different things now.

• 22:40Lewis Howes?

  And how do you feel over the last seven years by constantly living this practice?

• 22:45Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 22:45Lewis Howes?

  Sharing this information, making other people better?

• 22:49Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 22:49Lewis Howes?

  How's it feel?

• 22:50Speaker 01

  It's awesome. I love what I do. You know, I think, you know, energetically, from a people perspective, uh, you know, I, I think you are a combination of the five people you hang out with most. And in the past, you know, five or six years, I've gotten to meet like some of the most amazing, awesome people like yourself and health and wellness, like doing amazing things. And you meet these people.

• 23:12Lewis Howes?

  Rituals.

• 23:13Speaker 01

  And yeah, and we're friends and we hang out and like, you just can't help but like feel the energy and be inspired. Like it's just, it's like, you know, someone over here, it's like, you're writing another book and he's doing this. It's like, what are you doing? It's like, awesome, you know, it's just, you can't versus like in some environments with friends, it's like, what are you doing? Well, how are you going to make money or what is that? You know?

• 23:33Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 23:33Speaker 01

  And it's just a different conversation. So like, I'm continually inspired and fulfilled by the community, which is just awesome. So it's been great. And then growing the business has been fun and great and challenging and all that stuff. You know, I think one thing personally, I definitely have to be careful of is I love what I do so much and my wife works with me. I work a lot.

• 23:55Lewis Howes?

  Could be a hundred, all twenty-four seven.

• 23:57Speaker 01

  I've had moments from like, all this wellness is making me sick.

• 24:01Speaker 01

  You know, I gotta find time for myself, you know, it's great if I'm, you know, helping people change their lives, but I gotta also take care of myself.

• 24:08Lewis Howes?

  Make sure you continue to do your yoga practice.

• 24:10Speaker 01

  Right. Meditation, yoga, you know, going to the gym. I've evolved and I will continue to evolve, but like something you never want to, I think a lot of people in wellness have that problem too. It's like they, they love what they do and they work so much, but it's like, what, what happened to my? Practice.

• 24:23Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, right.

• 24:24Speaker 01

  Whatever that may be.

• 24:25Lewis Howes?

  Interesting. Yeah, I'll find myself, you know, there's certain things that I my way of being is consistent with gratitude and acknowledgement and support and appreciation, but sometimes I won't meditate every day, you know, it's like, although I talk about the importance and the value of it all the time on here and I'm bringing on meditation experts.

• 24:46Lewis Howes?

  And sometimes I'll just do it at night and I won't do it in the morning. And it's like, well, I get to make sure that I continue to follow through on what I'm, you know, what we're talking about. It's easy to slip out.

• 24:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:54Lewis Howes?

  Of any of these things. That's why I continue to have these conversations.

• 24:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:57Lewis Howes?

  You know, if you probably weren't doing my muddy green, it might be easier for you to slip out of the practice of everything.

• 25:03Speaker 01

  Oh yeah. If I weren't doing my muddy green, I'd be doing yoga all day. I'd be doing meditation. I'd, well, and then you could go the other way too.

• 25:09Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 25:09Speaker 01

  You know, I, you know, but it's, it's that balance.

• 25:12Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. What's been the, the most inspiring thing that's happened for you since starting the site?

• 25:19Speaker 01

  Wow. Uh, you know, I think, I think the people, I think, you know, meeting so many people who are, you know, have healed themselves, like people like Chris Carr, Joe Cross, Terry Walls, I could go on and on.

• 25:36Lewis Howes?

  Joe Cross is the juice guy, right?

• 25:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:37Lewis Howes?

  That's technique.

• 25:38Speaker 01

  Yeah. Phenomenal, like all these.

• 25:40Lewis Howes?

  That's where I first met you, I think. At the. I first saw you there.

• 25:43Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 25:43Lewis Howes?

  I didn't actually talk to you. The first study, I was like, there's another giant in the room. I can see him.

• 25:51Speaker 01

  Too funny. You know, just meeting people who are, you know, have, have, have risen from, you know, insurmountable circumstance. And, you know, that's just always so fulfilling. And some of the letters, the emails we get from people, like they've changed their lives. Like that's, you know, it's like, you see things like that. It's like, this is why we're doing what we're doing.

• 26:10Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 26:11Speaker 01

  Love that.

• 26:11Lewis Howes?

  What's been the biggest challenge for you over the last six, seven years?

• 26:15Speaker 01

  Got hiring, scaling, managing. You know, it's one thing when we first started out, when it's like five people in an office where it's like, do we want to do this? Yes, no, can we do it? Why do you think we could do it? Okay, done versus.

• 26:29Speaker 01

  You know, setting a meeting, setting an agenda. Structure. Structure, scaling, headcount, process. You know, organizations start to form where, you know, I have reports and they have reports. So cultures develop within mini-cultures and how are they all aligned with, you know, the culture I want and what type of, what type of people work out? You know, you know, we, people who are good, you know, employees, maybe one to 10, aren't great from 30 to 50 and then 50 to 100. And, you know, how do we get tighter in the interview process? Like, what are the things we look for? Like, now we have data of people who've succeeded and who haven't. So it's like, what are the things, what are the questions we ask? Like, what are the qualities we look for? What are the questions we ask? And how do we make sure we get the right people?

• 27:13Speaker 01

  Cause we could have the greatest mission, the greatest product, the greatest everything. But if we don't have the right people, not going to succeed. And so how do we find? And I think we're, we're getting quite good at that. Yeah. And then, you know, managing is something I think no one inherently is a great manager. It's something you have to work at and learn. Yeah.

• 27:33Speaker 01

  And so that's been fun and challenging and, you know, it's, it's, it's fun and challenging. What's the mission for you right now? You know, I think it's this idea of helping people live their best life. And to me, it's through this lifestyle, mind, body, green. I think it's, you know, mind, body, green by design. It's, it's, it's, it's one word, not three. It's all connected. And, you know, I think just, just having someone living, living their best life when it's just self-help focused sort of misses the other components. It's this blend, once again, mental, physical, spiritual, emotional, environmental wellbeing. So starting with that broad mission and then giving people the best content, then people, helping them live that way. So it's online courses.

• 28:16Speaker 01

  You read an article about meditation, you want to learn meditation, we got a class. You want to experience, you know, connect with community, you know, we do events. Someday we'll probably do products, but things to help you live better. So like, give you the tools. If you want to become a better person, we want to be able to give you everything.

• 28:34Lewis Howes?

  How do you build a culture that isn't focused on business growth? But more the things that you're teaching people to live every single day, you know? You're you're teaching and put out content about lifestyle and health and wellness. But you gotta pay bills.

• 28:49Speaker 01

  You need both.

• 28:50Lewis Howes?

  And they, you know, I'm sure their salaries aren't, uh, you know, cheap.

• 28:54Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 28:54Lewis Howes?

  For everyone that you have on your team. So how do you, you know? Lead in a way that gets people to step up and be productive every single day? So that they're bringing back two to 10x whatever you're paying them.

• 29:08Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 29:09Lewis Howes?

  Uh, but also to make sure that they're living a healthy life.

• 29:11Speaker 01

  Sure. So something we've learned in the hiring process, you know, I go back to, you know, basketball coaches used to always say you can't teach height.

• 29:19Lewis Howes?

  You can't.

• 29:19Speaker 01

  So I think, I think for us in hiring and.

• 29:22Lewis Howes?

  Or speed necessarily.

• 29:24Speaker 01

  You can't teach, you can get a little faster, but you can't get a little bit taller.

• 29:26Lewis Howes?

  No.

• 29:27Speaker 01

  Uh, so what I say is you can't teach passion and work ethic. So how do we find people who are really passionate about what we're doing? And then how do you find people who work hard? If you don't, either you sort of you work hard or you don't, you know?

• 29:41Lewis Howes?

  You're lazy or you work hard.

• 29:42Speaker 01

  Right. And, and maybe as a kid, you can come out of that, but as an adult, you know, either have it or you don't. So I think for us, it starts with, you know, hiring people who fit that profile, you know? Then you talk about like, do they have a certain skill set? Can they do the job? But like, are they passionate? If you get people who are passionate and work hard? I take that any day over the week for someone who's got a great skill set, who's lazy and is a pain in the ass.

• 30:05Lewis Howes?

  It's like the guy on the basketball team that just always dove in the floor for the loose ball.

• 30:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:09Lewis Howes?

  And always like was there for the rebound and always took the charge. It's like, you'll take him on your team all day long.

• 30:15Speaker 01

  Yep. Yep.

• 30:16Lewis Howes?

  Any, any coach would take that player.

• 30:18Speaker 01

  Yeah. And so it's finding that. And then, you know, my job, you know, are, are we, are we, I'm steering the ship. Like, do we, are, are we going the right way? Is the ship going the right way? Is the, is the plan sound? Do we have the right people on the ship? And then making sure we're, we're going where we need to go.

• 30:33Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 30:34Speaker 01

  Um, how much of the, the success of the site do you credit towards your team? A lot of it, you know, I think you're only good as your team and the community. And I, and I think, you know, I say, we know, we have a team of thirty three people. Everything we do depends on them. Like you can't operate a business if the CEO is gone and you know, the wheels fall off the wagon. And then also the larger community, you know, are we're, we're, my buddy Green, I think is the center of content, community and commerce and largely community driven. We have four thousand contributors who write for us. A lot of the best contributors are some of my best friends or people we go out to dinner with, we hang out, we do courses with them.

• 31:16Speaker 01

  So they're a big part of this. Like, how do we, you know, how do we shine a light on people who are, who are doing great things? How do we create revenue opportunities for them? Like, that's important. How do we give back? Like, you know, giving back community, I think, means a lot of different things, a lot of different people. I think community is in our DNA. You know, it started when I was going through this, I didn't, I didn't say like, okay, how do we get community? Like, let's go get it. Where do we get some of that? I say I was smart enough to know I didn't know everything and started, you know, asking questions and meeting people. And next thing you know, they were blogging and meet more people. And then they started blogging and it's this very authentic thing. And so they're a big part of this too. And like, you know, it's been fun, like Rich Roll, you mentioned, it's like, I met Rich in two, twenty ten. I've known him for six years. I've watched him grow and us grow.

• 32:01Lewis Howes?

  One of his first.

• 32:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, before his book, my wife, Colleen, went to Stanford and read about Rich in Stanford Magazine.

• 32:06Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 32:06Speaker 01

  I was like, we should talk to this guy. He's cool. I'm like, ah, he's just another Stanford swimmer. He's born, and she's like, she did an interview with him, my wife. I was like, this guy's awesome. And, you know, seeing him grow and then us grow and then we collaborate and we both grow together. Like, that stuff's just.

• 32:21Lewis Howes?

  That's really cool. What's it like working with your wife?

• 32:24Speaker 01

  It's good. You know, our, our problem is we actually work well together. We don't sit next to each other. She's the chief brand officer and, and her one of founding partner, you know, we work very differently. We don't sit next to each other. Our problem is we're so passionate about what we do. Like this is work and life are really one. We have trouble turning it off. We don't have kids yet. Hopefully we'll have kids this year, uh, next year. And so it's just the, the, the phrase last work comment happens a lot with us.

• 32:59Lewis Howes?

  What it was, I mean, let's.

• 33:00Speaker 01

  Like last work, I got last work comment. One last thing I have to say before you go to bed. So we, so we never, it's, it's hard for us to, to shut off because we just love what we do. We're growing and so we're constantly.

• 33:11Lewis Howes?

  I guess what else would you talk about if it wasn't work?

• 33:13Speaker 01

  I know, we, we joke that like, what did we talk about before? When we were together, before My Money Green, like we were, we did all these other things.

• 33:20Lewis Howes?

  My back pain.

• 33:21Speaker 01

  Yeah. But it's, it's a great problem. We've gotten better a little bit about that separation.

• 33:27Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 33:27Speaker 01

  It's great though. Like, I think when you're, you know, when I think passion, values and work are aligned, it's like magical, like I.

• 33:34Lewis Howes?

  It's a pretty sweet life.

• 33:35Speaker 01

  I love it. Yeah.

• 33:36Lewis Howes?

  What else do you look for?

• 33:38Speaker 01

  Right.

• 33:38Lewis Howes?

  I mean, what else is there?

• 33:39Speaker 01

  I had the other thing where you just.

• 33:41Lewis Howes?

  Make the money.

• 33:41Speaker 01

  Make the money and then walked out and you were done. And I just, it wasn't for me.

• 33:45Lewis Howes?

  What's your biggest fear? You've got this big site.

• 33:48Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 33:48Lewis Howes?

  Thousands of contributors, credibility, name.

• 33:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, all that stuff, you know, uh, credible, you know, there's this great line, uh, you know, it takes years to build trust, seconds to lose and a lifetime to regain. Our brand, our community, our trust is everything. So like it's, you know, how, how do we, how do we, you know, be careful about that? How do we cultivate that? How do we grow? And also at scale, like we've got 10 to 12 million unique visitors a month. Like we have serious scale, like we've got 33 employees. So like, how do, how do we, how do we guard that? How do we nurture that? How do we grow that? But also at scale, I can do it, but I can't do it for everyone or I could do it. So how does, how does every employee like think the same way about the brand and what we're doing? And, and that's something we're really focused on. So what is your biggest fear then?

• 34:38Speaker 01

  That's why. So how do we, how do we maintain the DNA? You know, I think that's every, every startup sphere, you know? How do you maintain that trust, that culture, the, the relationships, you know? As you grow, how do you lose that? You don't want to wake up someday and go in the office and be like, what the hell happened? Like, why are we doing this over here? And who's that guy over there? And who ordered pizza? Like, we don't, you know, what are we doing with pizza? That, you know, not that, like, that's a bad thing, you know? Sure, pizza's fine every once in a while, but, uh, you know, I think, so how do you maintain that? How do, how does everyone as a culture as a, you know, grow? In a way that I think is authentic to my buddy Green? How does that drill down? And also be sustainable, become a business and get great people? And so that's like a big thing. How do you do that?

• 35:23Speaker 01

  Like, you have to, and you can't micromanage that. How do you set up the infrastructure? How do you find the right people and then plug them in and build those pillars? That's strong foundation. Cause if you're, you know, want to build a skyscraper, want to do big things, like the foundation's not set. Pillars aren't there. Sure. You're gonna be patching up things. You're gonna, you're just never gonna be able to build. It'll take, you know, so. What's the biggest lesson you've learned about yourself from writing this book? Uh, it's a good question.

• 35:53Speaker 01

  You know, I, I share it a lot. I, uh, I tend not to do that in person, maybe unless I really know you. But. What are two or three things that would shock people that you wrote about in there? That you shared? You know, God, I was talking with, uh, Amanda Chantel Bacon from Moon Juice today. And, uh, she read the book and she was saying, she was like, I just kept on like, thinking of you as this idea of like, uh, a traitor, playboy, like getting smashed every night with women. She's like, I couldn't picture you as that. Or like, you know, doing stupid crap in high school and cheating and drug, eating all that stuff. But I wanted to share that, you know?

• 36:34Speaker 01

  I think within, within the world we live in today, uh, where social media in a lot of ways is driven by Instagram. We're in a culture where people project perfection. And that's nice, but, you know, no one's perfect. I wanted to show, I'm a normal guy, like a lot of people, you know? Yeah, sure, I'm six foot seven, but like, I'm a normal guy. Like, I'm, I'm, I'm a normal guy that, you know, if you walked into a bar, you'd have a conversation with. Maybe we'd have a drink, a laugh or what have you. And so I really wanted to to let people know who I was. Because I do think it's a problem when, you know, in this age of social media, we're constantly only showing the good and perfection and and no one's perfect. I'm far from perfect. And I think

• 37:19Speaker 01

  shooting for shooting for perfection is is dangerous. And I think, you know, it's this idea, once again, of of what's the lifestyle? Like, what works for you? Like, no one's perfect. Like, I talk about, you know, just in diet in terms of like, yeah, I said, sugar's toxic, sugar's terrible, sugar's a devil. But you know what? Sometimes I want a good donut and that's okay.

• 37:38Lewis Howes?

  I love donuts.

• 37:40Speaker 01

  You know, that's okay. And so it's just, you know, I wanted to show people it's okay.

• 37:44Lewis Howes?

  So even though you're promoting Mind Body Green.

• 37:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, we're not perfect.

• 37:47Lewis Howes?

  You're not vegan, raw vegan.

• 37:50Speaker 01

  No, and I've tried. I've I've been vegan. I've been paleo. I've been vegetarian. Like, yes, I believe in a plant based diet like where I am today. Like, I eat mostly plants, but like every once in a while I'll have meat. I'll have Sam, you know, I just, I'm a human. And I think perfection, unless you've got a health, you know, some health issues, like

• 38:08Speaker 01

  lifestyle is the only thing that lasts and you got to find what works for you.

• 38:12Lewis Howes?

  Exactly. Yeah. What's your vision for the next five, six years? You've been around six years or seven years now?

• 38:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:18Lewis Howes?

  So it's come a long way.

• 38:20Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 38:20Lewis Howes?

  It's evolved in many different. You probably didn't know you're gonna have courses or events. Maybe you did.

• 38:25Speaker 01

  No.

• 38:26Lewis Howes?

  But what do you see happening in twice the amount of time from here?

• 38:29Speaker 01

  Sure, sure.

• 38:30Lewis Howes?

  How much? How much traffic you get? How many posts you putting out? What are you guys creating?

• 38:34Speaker 01

  Well, that's a little two things. So I'll talk about. So on the macro level, I think more of what we do. So like more content, better content, a lot more classes, courses. We're gonna start to do trainings, really exciting, uh, become more of a platform to help awesome people, like get their word out, have more of a conversation, which I think, you know, once again, community, how do we support community? Create revenue for community, events. We love events, connect with people. Like, that's really important. Once again, sort of gets lost in this day and age.

• 39:04Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 39:05Speaker 01

  And I think we'll do product at some point, like not to just do product, but like. You gotta give people the tools, you know, media is just one way of giving people tools to help themselves better. But if there are products that can also go along with that, that probably makes sense for us.

• 39:19Lewis Howes?

  What type of products would you love to have?

• 39:22Speaker 01

  You know, I'd love to do, you know, a yoga mat, you know, work with someone awesome on that. Or, you know, it's like one of the first questions I always get from a guy who, you know, who's starting yoga. Some of my, my older, my older guy friends are like starting to, you know, feel the, uh, feel a case of the forties, so to speak. You know, like, I'm gonna go to yoga, what match should I get? So it'd be great to collaborate with someone on that.

• 39:44Lewis Howes?

  Sure, sure.

• 39:46Speaker 01

  And so that, I think we want to do more of everything and also also stay true to the mission. Like, we're never gonna do anything just to do it, you know, what's the, what's the purpose? And then, uh, you know, traffic, uniques, all that stuff. I actually think we're in an interesting time in media. I think it's evolving, we're, we're in the age of platforms. Metrics are changing. So it used to be uniques were sort of everything. Uniques are still important, you still need scale, but like, you got Instagram, you got Snapchat, you got Facebook.

• 40:15Lewis Howes?

  Total platform.

• 40:16Speaker 01

  Platforms, and so you talk to different people in different ways on different platforms. And what the platforms are doing too is they're creating ways for you to live on their platform that are unique to that platform. So they don't have to go back to you. So, yeah, to survive and to thrive in this new environment, you need massive, massive scale.

• 40:38Speaker 01

  Or you need a really strong brand, ideally both. So like where we're going, like, I think our brand's really strong. It can live on platforms where people remember it, they know the content and they come back to our site.

• 40:51Speaker 01

  And that's where we're at. So I think media is like at this interesting, you either like are gonna go really go big. Or just try to like carve out your niche and still have like a great business and mission driven. And so that's what's, and like the middle's falling out. That's what I'm seeing with me and talked to a lot of smart people about that. Like, what are you gonna do? You gonna invest in all these platforms?

• 41:10Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 41:11Speaker 01

  It's, it's not cheap.

• 41:12Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 41:13Speaker 01

  A lot of time. Or are you gonna carve out something and build your audience authentically and serve them? And it's hard to do, hard to do both. So we're, we're, we're gonna go over here.

• 41:22Lewis Howes?

  Who, yeah, who are, who are a couple of the brands or sites that really are inspiring you that you're like, wow, these guys are just doing it well, doing it right. And they're just accelerating because of that.

• 41:33Speaker 01

  You know, I look at everything, I think.

• 41:38Speaker 01

  On the, I look at everyone, to be honest, like, I don't know if I'm like blown up by anyone. I see people carving out where they're going. Some people I look at like, okay, they're going for the massive scale. I see others where I'm like, you're kind of going to be left in the middle. And I see others starting to like carve out their niche. You know, I go back to sports metaphors with the great John Wooden and coached at UCLA, you know, famously like was never a big scout, so to speak. He always said, he was aware, he did a little scouting, but didn't spend a lot of time on scouting. And he said, if we just need to focus on what we do, and if we focus on what we do and we execute, we will win. And that's how I sort of look at it. Like, I'm aware, but like I said, everyone internally, we just need to focus on our plan and our strategy and execution. And if we do.

• 42:25Lewis Howes?

  We'll be successful.

• 42:25Speaker 01

  We're going to be successful. And it's not about winning or losing either. It's like, how do we become the best we can be?

• 42:30Lewis Howes?

  Of course. Yeah, I love that. What's something people don't know about you that you wish they knew more of you?

• 42:35Speaker 01

  Uh, you know, I think it goes back to this idea of balance, where, you know, I am, I'm in the middle of the wellness world. Like, I know all the best doctor, the heart of it, you know, know all the best doctors, the nutritionists, the yogis, you know it. And, you know, my buddy Green's driving a large part of this conversation. And, but I also, I really believe in balance. Unless you have, you know, as I mentioned, serious health issues, I believe in balance. I believe in finding a lifestyle. I do not believe in this one size fits all approach to health and wellness. Like, I think it's

• 43:16Speaker 01

  insane. I'm six foot seven, 41, probably like 225 pounds, which I don't weigh myself anymore. I'm taking a guess. What is good for me? It's insane to think would be good for like a five foot two, 18 year old female gymnast.

• 43:31Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 43:32Speaker 01

  You know, and I think this idea that, you know, in the wellness world, it's very dogmatic, where it's like, you gotta be this, or you gotta be that, or you gotta do that. I think it's.

• 43:44Speaker 01

  Not great for a lot of people who are new to this. And so I think I'd love for more people to know that like, it's okay, like balance is good. Like strive for making improvements in your life that makes sense. And it's a lifestyle because if it's not a lifestyle, like if you're just gonna go all in and then you can't maintain it.

• 44:02Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 44:03Speaker 01

  You're gonna fall apart.

• 44:04Lewis Howes?

  That's true.

• 44:05Speaker 01

  And you know, I want people to be like, I'm not this insane. I get questions like, are you vegan or are you pale? I'm like, no, like I believe in, I believe in those things, but like, I am a conscious omnivore, even though I believe in the power of plants and eat more vegetables. And I think that's like the joke, like that would be the best, the worst selling book of all time. Just eat vegetables and that's the diet. If you stick to that, you're gonna be okay. So which people knew more about that, like I, I, I believe in balance. You know, I am not just some guy who juices and does yoga every day and meditates. Like I am a normal guy. Who, you know, extremely blast, works hard, have great people around me.

• 44:50Speaker 01

  But I'm a normal guy and I do what I can. I, I find a lifestyle that works for me.

• 44:57Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 44:57Speaker 01

  And so, you know, here it is, like the guy is the CEO of, you know, one of the, probably the, the, the media company that's driving the health and wellness revolution. But like this is, I'm normal.

• 45:07Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 45:07Speaker 01

  I'm not nuts.

• 45:08Lewis Howes?

  Right, right. Exactly. I love it.

• 45:09Speaker 01

  It's okay.

• 45:10Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. I love it. Uh, final few questions.

• 45:13Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 45:14Lewis Howes?

  Uh, what are you most grateful for in your life recently?

• 45:16Speaker 01

  Oh man, like my family, my mother, my wife, uh, my team at my buddy Green, like, you know, my health. You know, all the little things you just never want to take for granted.

• 45:26Lewis Howes?

  For sure. This is a three truths question. I don't know if you've heard my podcast ever.

• 45:31Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 45:31Lewis Howes?

  You have? Okay. So it's the last day, you have a piece of paper and a pen to write three truths. Your book is gone. My buddy Green is gone.

• 45:40Speaker 01

  Where'd it go?

• 45:40Lewis Howes?

  It's deleted. It's erased from time. Everything's gone, but it's many, many years from now and you get to write down your three lessons. The three things you know to be true about everything you've learned in life. And this is the message you give to the world, since they can't read anything you've ever put out there before. What would you write down as those three truths?

• 46:01Speaker 01

  Gratitude is the key to happiness. I would say the key to success is the combination of belief and passion. And I would say that true love only comes along when you are a hundred percent. When you are, when you are in love with yourself and know who you are.

• 46:31Lewis Howes?

  Hmm, those are good. I like those. Those are good.

• 46:34Speaker 01

  This house approved.

• 46:35Lewis Howes?

  I approve that. I like that one. Uh, before I ask the final question, uh, make sure to go get Wealth, How I Learned to Build a Life, not a resume. Go pick it up right now. You can get it in bookstores and Amazon and everywhere online. Also go to mindbodygreen.com, uh, subscribe, become a part of the community. You guys have a lot of great content.

• 46:55Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 46:55Lewis Howes?

  I check it out all the time. So make sure to go there. Where should we follow you specifically if we want to connect or?

• 47:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm on, I'm on Twitter and Instagram at Jason Wachob, W A C H O B.

• 47:06Lewis Howes?

  There you go. Um, before I ask the final question, I want to acknowledge you, Jason, for, for being here and for showing up and for having awareness. Because I think that it's so easy for people to get caught up in wanting to make money and be driven to make money. And the awareness you had with your health, with your back, with noticing that, hey, this isn't really serving my higher purpose right now. And shifting, leaving a, a successful financial, you know, job and going into the unknown.

• 47:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, but it took 10 years.

• 47:37Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 47:37Speaker 01

  That's the other thing. These things, these transitions can take a while.

• 47:40Lewis Howes?

  Right. But now you're serving the world in a major way.

• 47:43Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 47:44Lewis Howes?

  That awareness, that noticing that you had, that presence has impacted millions of people around the world. So I want to acknowledge you for your commitment, your dedication, your passion for this because, uh, you know, you're serving so many people in the process.

• 48:01Speaker 01

  Thank you so much.

• 48:01Lewis Howes?

  Of course. And the final question is, what's your definition of greatness?

• 48:06Speaker 01

  I think greatness is is feeling great. Well, let me think about that because I could go a couple of different ways with this now that I'm starting to think about it.

• 48:19Speaker 01

  You know, I think greatness is, you know, I'm going to go back to gratitude. I think greatness is waking up every morning and feeling grateful for what you have and grateful for the world you live in and and and trying to do whatever you can during the day to be the best person you can possibly be, even in the the smallest moments. And I think true greatness in that definition is quite hard because we all have, you know, it's easy, I think, to focus on big things like greatness is doing, you know, X or Y and doing that. But I think it's the moments throughout the day where we all lose ourselves and we all, you know, are upset in the line at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. And but I think it's that idea of, you know, I think

• 49:04Speaker 01

  life in general, success and greatness is made up of the smaller moments and really focusing on trying to get through them and be the best you can be. And it's hard. And we all have moments, myself included. So I think greatness is, and you'll never really get there, which is the beauty of it.

• 49:25Lewis Howes?

  Awesome. Jason, thanks so much for coming on.

• 49:27Speaker 01

  Thanks so much, Lewis.

• 49:28Lewis Howes?

  Appreciate it.

• 49:28Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 49:32Lewis Howes?

  Thank you again, guys, so much for being here. And this is episode number 303 with Jason. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to tag us both on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook and share this with your friends. The link is lewishouse.com/303. The full video interview, the photos from today's interview, the resources, all that stuff, where you can get Jason's new book is at lewishouse.com/303. And please leave a comment on the blog or on the YouTube video and let me know what you thought of this interview. I really appreciate you guys. Again, I feel like the luckiest guy in the world, and it means so much that you continue to show up, you're present, you're listening.

• 50:16Lewis Howes?

  And so many of you, you know, post photos of you running on the treadmill and say, "I, I work out longer now and harder because I listen to the podcast and I just get in the zone and I get inspired." So for me, that's awesome. If you can, you know, get some great knowledge and information and work on your body at the same time with working out and listening to this, then that's a double, uh, double bonus. So I appreciate you guys. I love you guys and I hope you continue to spread the message of greatness. It's all about becoming the best version of ourselves and then making others better around us. That's what this is about. That's what it is to be great. I hope you guys enjoyed

• 50:57Lewis Howes?

  this one. You know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.