Jason Wachob- Mind Body Green, Meditation and Mindset

Show Notes

02:08 Jason’s Alternative Medicine Journey:  After playing basketball for and graduating from Columbia, he became a Wall Street trader. By the second year he was making a great deal of money, but his relationship fell apart. He had money, but he was miserable. He wondered if there was more to life. Soon thereafter 9-1-1 occurred. He left Wall Street to begin two failed start-ups. He was broke and living at home at 30. He joined a successful organic chocolate chip cookie company, which had him traveling. He flew nearly 150,000 miles domestic in a year. Between his 6 feet 7 inches tall frame, stress and previous injuries from basketball, he developed 2 extruded discs in his lower back. It caused excruciating pain. Surgery was recommended but one doctor mentioned yoga and therapy. So, Jason started doing light restorative yoga. Within a few weeks he began to feel better and in a few months he completely healed.  During this process, he began to explore sleep, stress, nutrition, and the environment and their connections.  It was the inspiration for Mind Body Green.

06:38 Jason’s Advice to Entrepreneurs: He believes in big ideas and saw Mind Body Green as something that could be big. In 2007 they had the idea and 2009 they officially launched. It took 3 years of hard work and sacrifice on the part of his partners and family to make it work. Building a powerful brand takes time. Trust takes years to build, seconds to lose and a lifetime to regain. It took a great deal of passion and dedication. Jason says to entrepreneurs that whatever you are doing always takes longer than you think.  You have to be comfortable with ambiguity, because you will be operating without all of the information you want or need. Your problems don’t go away, they just change.

11:02 Lessons Learned from Experts: Everyone is different. We are all individuals and we change. For Jason, having a gratitude practice is huge. When Jason first awakens, he says thank you silently for each of the important things in his life. Hard work will get you far, as will the spiritual awareness, but the magic happens somewhere in the middle.

15:45 Mindfulness in Business:  Bridgewater, one of the biggest hedge funds in the world, led by Ray Dalio, huge meditator. If you work at Bridgewater, it is strongly encouraged that you learn meditation as a means to achieve results. Meditation is viewed as a performance booster. Meditation helps us to manage (not eliminate) stress. It has seeped into corporate culture.

19:15 Mind/Body Practice: Find a mind/body practice that works for you to manage stress. It is essential to survival. For Jason, that’s meditation. He used to do yoga every day. As the Mindbodygreen business grew, his yoga practice diminished. He decided that he could not compromise his health and wellbeing.  He committed to doing yoga on the weekends for 15 or 20 minutes at home. Jason does meditation every day for 20 minutes repeating his mantra over and over. Occasionally he does it twice a day, but he never misses a day. It has been a powerful game changing.

21:42 Meditation: There are 4 or 5 main types of meditation. Vedic is a form of meditation where you repeat a mantra, a word that has no meaning over and over in your head. It tunes out and drives focus. There is also posana silent meditation and breath oriented meditation.

24:16 Diet: There is no one-size-fits-all approach to diet. We are unique. Enjoying food is a spiritual activity. Find your lifestyle.

26:50 The Most Surprising Popular Content on Mindbodygreen:  About a year or two ago a woman posted about what it was like to lose a child.  It was a heartbreaking post that was shared millions of times and garnered a huge response.

28:53 Changing Our Mindset: Life can suck, but it is about picking yourself up and trying, no matter how hard it is, to see the silver lining. Sometimes there is no silver lining and it needs to be set aside. This is easy to say, but difficult in the moment. Facing adversity and coming out on the other side builds a track record and makes you stronger. You cannot connect the dots going forward. You can only connect them going backward.

31:30 Jason’s Book Wellth: Jason wishes that he had had this book 15 years ago when he began his journey to build a life and not a resume.

34:10 Jason’s Favorite Nutrient or Food: Avocado is his favorite and eats it every way possible.

35:08 Jason’s Morning Routine:  He practices gratitude first thing. If he is not running late, he meditates sitting straight up in his bed. He drinks black coffee, reads the printed edition of The Wall Street Journal. He also has a smoothie for breakfast consisting of almond milk, almond butter, chocolate protein powder, and frozen blackberries. He walks the 3 blocks to work.

38:57 The Elevator Talk with a Powerful Politician: Jason would like to educate politicians about the content on Mindbodygreen and get them on board with healthy practices.Related Podcast

Interview Overview