The School of Greatness - 186 How to Start a Lifestyle Movement with Wanderlust Co-Founder Jeff Krasno

Episode Date: June 8, 2015

"Wisdom comes in the spaces." - Jeff Krasno If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes and more at lewishowes.com/186

This is episode number 186 with Jeff Krasnow. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, 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. Welcome everyone to today's episode.

And if you've ever dreamed of building something so powerful, something so much bigger than yourself, a movement, a community of people that spans all around the world, then today is a great episode for you. Because Jeff Krasnow is the co-founder of Wanderlust, which brings together a remarkable group of yoga and meditation instructors, musical performers, speakers, artists, and chef for transformational retreats in the world's most awe-inspiring natural places and resorts. He's a musician, a husband, a father of three daughters, and again, is the co-founder of Wanderlust.

And I'm very excited to dive into this interview. It felt like 20 minutes when we were talking, but it ended up being close to an hour interview and really dove into a lot of the things about how Jeff went from being a music producer and working in that industry to having an idea that now has blown up and is one of the biggest movements around the world in that space and how he's really developed this incredible culture in his business and this culture in this community that is spreading the message for him. So again, I'm very excited to dive into this.

And without further ado, let's go ahead and dive into this episode with the one and only co-founder of Wanderlust, Jeff Krasnow. Welcome, everyone, to the School of Greatness podcast. Very excited about today's guest. His name is Jeff Krasnow. How's it going, Jeff? I'm doing great, Lewis. Thanks for having me. Yeah, very excited about this. Now, Jeff is the co-founder of Wanderlust Festivals, which is a movement for people to discover their best selves, essentially. But it's all about, and I guess what I want to know is there's a definition of Wanderlust in the dictionary, and then you have a different definition. Is there a way that you could explain them both to me yeah i'd be happy to so the definition in the dictionary for wanderlust is this innate desire to travel and for me i've always

used wanderlust kind of metaphorically that kind of mirroring that desire to know the world, to go out and explore the world. There's also this kind of insatiable quest to look inward and explore yourself, to mine deeper and to really find your true north, to cultivate your best self. So, you know, when we use Wanderlust, we're sort of using it both ways to explore the world, but also to explore yourself. I love that. That's awesome. And what inspired you to, you know, you've got this book, which is called Wanderlust, A Modern Yogi's Guide to Discovering Your Best Self and Find Your True North.

And the book is incredible. I'm going to tell you guys more about this a little bit later, but I think everyone should get a copy because it's just so visually inspiring that it makes me want to go out and just change the world alone from its visual beauty. But there's just great exercises and content in here as well. But what inspired you to create a movement and a festival called One to Lust? Well, I can't say that we were set out to start a movement. It was a little more humble than that at the beginning anyways. You know, a lot of it honestly has to do with my wife Skylar, who started Kula Yoga, which was a yoga studio. It still is. It's been going for the last, well, let's see, 14 years.

And she opened that yoga studio literally out of the ashes of 9-11, just two blocks north of the World Trade Center. And my office was actually down below on 28 Warren Street. And she opened the yoga studio just the floor above. I was running a music entertainment management company. And there was literally ash in our building. So she felt that really that the community there needed a place to go in those months when they actually let us back into that little radius. And so she built out this, it was a yoga studio, but what I saw it quickly become was this,

you know, community center, to be honest. And, you know, the tears and the joy and the sweat and the community that built in that those first, you know, six months to a year after 9-11 was so palpable. It was really just, it was life-changing for me. And it was, I think, really life-changing for a lot of the people that lived right in that neighborhood. And so that was kind of my first sort of window into it. And my wife was leading these retreats down to Costa Rica quite a bit. And my business partner and I, Sean, would sort of tag along on what I call kind of the first of many bumpy roads in the name of yoga. And literally, we would like bump down, you know,

out on our way to the Osa Peninsula. And we were out there waking up early, you know, eating the food that grew right there, you know, doing yoga, meditating, surfing, cooking together, you know, playing music and dancing, you know, having a glass of wine or, you know, a beer or two in the evening. And, you know, at that point, you know, we looked around and we asked ourselves, you know,

if this could work for 30 people in the middle of the rainforest in the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica, you know, could it work for 5,000 people on the side of a mountain in North America? And we didn't know the answer at that point, but we do now. And the answer was yes. 5,000 people on the side of a mountain in North America. And we didn't know the answer at that point, but we do now. And the answer was yes. And not just on a mountain in North America, all over the world. And that's what we've seen is this incredible afflorescence of this culture that is the yoga lifestyle. And it's yoga beyond what you do on the mat. It's yoga sort of as a principle for living. You know, it's, it's how, what's the yoga of your relationship?

What's the yoga of your business, of how you eat, of how you treat people, of how you treat the earth? You know, people are starting to see a thread connecting all of those things, um, in a way that feels very organic. So, you know, honestly, that was the humble beginning was really this idea that we had in, in Costa Rica. And then, you know, translating that into reality, which it's, which is, you know, honestly, like a lot of nuts and bolts, um, there's a creative spark to it, but there's also kind of a lot of nuts and bolts. There's a creative spark to it, but there's also kind of a lot of production operations and marketing and website functionality

and sales functionality, all the different stuff that it takes to create a business. But yeah, so that's where it started. And then it just kind of got a momentum of its own a bit. When was this retreat in Costa Rica? This was I think about she's led maybe about

50 of them but I think this was maybe about 2006, 2007 where we got the idea and then When was the first big festival on the mountain? the first one was in squaw valley in 2009 so you know we were raising money for that in the fall of 2008 over and over again because that was not an easy time to to do that and um so we kind of got ourselves over

barrel because we had basically contracted with the mountain. We're going to go in and we're going to do this event. And so we just sort of had to do it. And that was the first one. And how much was the production cost for the entire event? That one was, you know, if you include talent and everything, all the costs were significantly higher than the revenue generated. But it was about I think $1.4 million to do that first event.

Just to produce the event. Just to produce the event and to book all the talent and to do all the other things that you needed to do. How many people showed up for the first event? There's a big difference between how many people showed up and how many people paid. How many people paid?

What are both? How many people showed up? We had, oh God, to be honest I don't really remember, but I think we had different kinds of tickets. I think we had about 800 people pay for the yoga lifestyle activity

part of the event. And then a couple thousand people pay for the yoga lifestyle activity part of the event and then a couple thousand people pay for the music ticket which was quite cheap and then there was a lot of people that were part of the community that came on a gratis basis let's say

I think it was about my roots are very much in the music industry I grew up as a musician and then started producing records and all this stuff. Classical records, right? Some jazz, singer-songwriter, always very musical, nothing too pop focused. It was about a month and a half out from the festival, and I was at another festival backstage at Bonnaroo and I had those I'd known those guys that started that kind of way back in the day and uh you know

we could not sell a ticket you know we couldn't we couldn't give a ticket away really really I was you know and it was a new concept it was sort of hard to explain yeah it's a music festival but it's got yoga and it's got organic food. And back then, it just didn't make sense. I mean, now it seems so obvious. And we're much better at explaining it. But back then, it was kind of indie rock, but then it was people doing yoga, meditating. But how does that have anything to do with Spoon or Andrew Bird or Jenny Lewis or any of these?

So I was sitting backstage with a guy, an agent, that's a guy named Matt Hickey, and I said, Matt, I can't sell a ticket. I don't know what to do. And he's like, you just go there. Go there and grab handfuls of tickets, and you got to go to every single establishment, restaurant, bar, party, farm stand, anything, anyone that'll have you, and just wire up the community. So I have three daughters, and we trucked out to

Squaw Valley, and we set up shop there for 40 days, 40 days and 40 nights. And my daughter Phoebe and I, we stocked up a station wagon with posters and flyers and tickets and duct tape and staple guns and whatnot. And really hit the road, old school, grassroots. And just got the word out. And that first year, enough people came and we saw what worked. And it was really, what worked was really like this, the yoga thing, the lifestyle thing, this idea that there was this sort of safe sanctuary place

for people to commune around kind of a shared practice and shared values and obviously very and honestly very female focused sure um you know men have their golf outings and their fly fishing trips and you know whatever else they have but women you know they don't have the same uh i don't think um variety of experiences where they can get away with their friends and we were like, wow, this is really what people are craving. They're craving a safe place to get away, to commune, and to do kind of the best things in life. And so we just sort of zeroed in on what was really, really

working. And then the next year we nailed it. And then we were able to scale it pretty quickly after that. Wow. And so the following year, you just did one big event in 2009 and then one other big event in 2010. Is that right? Or were there other? Yeah, that was it. And then from there, after 2010 was a solvent year, we were able to really go quickly and add a number of events. I think we're at 42 events now around the world. But there's one big Wanderlust event every year, right?

Well, they're all big now. They're all pretty much at the same scale. So there's not one Mecca event then? Well, Squaw Valley is the oldest, it's sort of the grandfather event and it's still, I guess, probably, you know, the most grandiose, I would say on some level. But, you know, we do event here in Brooklyn, which is just a one day event, but we did over 10,000 people last year. So it's really happening and, you, and it's all over the place.

We've got some amazing partners in Australia and New Zealand, so they've got five or six events running this year. We've got great partners in Canada. We've got Mexico rolling out this year and Europe coming next year. So it's honestly, we're not even really pressing the gas. It's sort of actually happening in a way that's organic, which is a kind of a nice way to do it. It's amazing. And how many people have attended an event over the last few years all around the world? Oh boy, that's a tough one. I think this year we'll do about 130,000 people across the event platform.

And yeah, so that's... And those are all paid tickets. Those are all paid tickets, yeah. Amazing. Wow. I'm just thinking of the infrastructure you have to have to be able to create all these events around the world, the teams you must have, the systems in place in the back end of your website

must be incredible. Yeah, yeah, it is. must have the systems in place in the back end of your website must be incredible. Yeah. Yeah, it is. And it's funny cause it's such a millennial atmosphere here. I'm in Brooklyn, just where our headquarters is. And of course,

like our, our web developer is like surfing in Nicaragua while developing the website. And I'm like, this is such a, a sort of crystallization of what our culture is right now like okay he's surfing and developing a pretty complicated back end right now

but actually we lured him back for at least a little bit but yeah there's a lot of systems a lot of infrastructure that goes into it for sure now are you surprised by this movement you've created again 130 000 plus people i'm assuming every year it's almost doubling maybe even more

since you started um are you surprised by the the growth in just i guess five and a half years or did you have this vision in 2006 when you did this first retreat did you have this vision that this is something you could create within 10 years and have people all over the world living this way, this lifestyle, the way you wanted to live? Well, I'll paraphrase Bubba Watson, which I think he said, I never made it this far in my dreams or in this case, my vision. But I didn't. I didn't make it this far when I first thought about it. And now, you know, it's just very humbling that it's happening. And also very challenging because, you know, there's something at the core of this,

the core of eating locally or going to your local yoga studio the core of eating locally or going to your local yoga studio or commuting with your friends and cooking dinner. Like this whole movement that we represent, there is this hyper local quality to it. You know, yet here we are sort of scaling it all over the world. and it's finding that balance of like, okay, what actually feels truly authentic and not just like a big business expansion. And that really is the line that we have to balance and not just for appearances, actually for honest reality

because I don't want to just stamp things out that then end up just feeling hollow. That's just antithetical to why we started doing it in the first place. So that's the balance right now is doing this and finding the right partners and really digging in. I mean, it's honestly not a simple thing to scale because it's so high touch. It's not just a product that has a margin and then it's all about volume. You know, it's not a piece of clothing or something. It is like a, it's an experience and experiences are by nature, very hard to scale. So, um, so yeah, it's usually the bigger

the experience or the bigger the audience, the harder it is to be as intimate and connected and vulnerable and open typically, right? Yeah, and also unlike Bonnaroo that I love and that I mentioned earlier, like this event doesn't work for 80,000 people at a time. You know, practicing yoga with 80,000 people, to me, that doesn't mean it. That's not a real experience. It might be a cool community experience,

but it's not a practice. You know, you can't really get a practice out of that. So there's a point at which our events just actually max out, and above which wouldn't really feel like you're really getting anything from it. And that's at the core of these events. It's like we managed to curate and bring in like all of this incredible talent. I mean, these experts from, you know, farmers and philosophers and chefs and yoga teachers and meditators and, you know, writers and, you know, just all of this, this cauldron of talent that sort of like comes together

in this place for four days. And then it's really about the guest finding that gem of wisdom, that little discovery that then they can apply to their own life and bring back into their world, bring back into their community. And it's that curation process is incredibly time consuming.

You know, it's incredibly deep. And, you know, so, you know, it's incredibly deep. And, you know, so, you know, it's not a, like I said, it's not just a quick thing. Yeah, it's not a food and beverage product, like consumer product or whatever, that you just, it's on an assembly line and you're just turning it up. So, right.

So yeah, no, it's, yeah. So that's, that's cool. Yeah. Well, you know, on the cover of your book, it says to find your true north. And can you tell me what does that exactly mean? And do you feel like the majority of the people in the world are not, they haven't found their true north or they're not following the compass to get there? Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure you ever find it. Like I say in the book, like the train doesn't stop and the whistle goes off and says, oh, you're true north.

You've made it. You know, time to get off. I think, you know, Patabi Joy said, practice, practice, practice. And I think that that's what it is. process for living and that we can create certain guidelines and learn these lessons that make that process rich and full and almost unwittingly inside that process you've found something you know you've turned you know the you've turned away from the shadow and towards the light and you glimpse for a moment, like the beauty and truth and it's, and it's real form, you know? Um, and, and that's where that beauty is when you've, you know, aligned, um, what you're doing with what you love to do

and time sort of evaporates. And that's kind of those moments of true North. Um, so I call that finding a zone. Yeah, well, that's what, you know, when we try to get more men to the events, that's what I've often referred to it as the zone. And we know it because of sports. We know it because we grew up with Michael Jordan closing his eyes and hitting a free throw

or Roger Federer or whoever was, you know, our sports idols where they're in that zone where they have perfect awareness of their body and space and, um, and all those, those things where they can't miss. Um, and, and I think, you know, through the practice of meditation, through the practice of yoga, through these things, I think the zone becomes a little bit more accessible. The zone becomes a little bit more accessible. But, you know, Find Your True North, I mean, came out of, you know, sort of a month that I spent, you know, out of the office up in Connecticut where I do some thinking and writing. And I was sort of, I'm kind of geek out on branding a little bit and you know we spoke a little bit about wanderlust and the definition of wanderlust and then the metaphorical way that we use wanderlust to really around self-exploration and so you know i was really playing with that travel idea a lot and you know we came up with the compass of like okay well that's a really great visual guide for the brand because here

we are we're kind of helping people navigate their path to cultivate their best self. And then, you know, that notion of find your true north, well, it's obviously kind of a geographic reference or a travel reference, but it also kind of refers very directly to, you know, your true north as kind of your best self, your most inspired life. And so after 30 days, I was very proud of myself. I thought there was sort of an elegant way of how the metaphor of Wanderlust, the compass, and find your true north all sort of worked together pretty nicely. And I haven't really had a single good branding thought since then, but I'll ride on that wave for a little

while. What, uh, what is your process then for finding your true North or how would you explain to someone the process to discovering it? Yeah, well, I think it's really different for everybody to be honest with you. Um, it, you know, I think it absolutely is. Uh, you know, for me, it's, um, you know, there's a number of things and some of them are just kind of like silly, like, you know, don't have your coffee in the morning on an empty stomach, you know, like things that like, but, but those actually have real ramifications because when I do that, I'm jittery, I'm not focused, like my stomach is like acidic, you know, and I tend to like jump around a lot and, you know, send a lot of emails or whatever and I'm not really focused. And to create space for yourself,

to really be focused and be creative. I think there is a Don Draper Mad Men line, which I'll butcher, but someone asks him, how do you come up with all these great branding ideas? And he's like, I think about it all day, and then I go to the movies. And what he's talking about is like, okay, well he pours over and he knows it inside

now, but then he gives himself some space for the wisdom to come in. And so it's a battle to do that because it's very, very easy to get swallowed up into the sea of digital noise and texting and emailing and doing and doing and growing and biggering and biggering that you don't actually give yourself the space to really have the best and most focused ideas. So that's something I try to work on every day where I actually take some time away from all modes of communication. And that might be doing yoga or meditating or just going to the gym or, you know, spending more time with my children or whatever. Just ways to find more space because that, cause that, that really, that really helps me. Um, I like that. You know, it's funny you said that because I listened to an episode of, uh, another podcast called on being with yo-yo ma. And he said, he said, music happens between the notes

and your, you know, your quote of wisdom comes in the spaces is, you know, kind of rang true with that and being a musician or music producer in the past yourself. I'm assuming you can appreciate that. It's interesting because there are some days where I'll just be working nonstop all day long and I'm a big movie guy myself. So to decompress, I go to two movies a week usually and I get a lot of fresh ideas when I come out of it. And I think it's good to make sure that we take time to really allow ourselves to, you know, relax and work on our bodies and our minds and our souls and feed the other elements of our lives as opposed to just our, you know, our business or just our goals all by themselves. So I appreciate that. I have this, nobody knows this until now. So I have this very embarrassing exercise technique that I've sort of created

for myself called yoga which is really jogging yoga let's hear it well it's cardio so it's jogging kind of on your bottom half and it's sort of yoga on your top half so you're kind of going through these kind of shoulder openings and you're kind of

doing sort of like sun salutations and warrior poses and, kind of you're doing sort of like, you know, sun salutations and warrior poses and whatnot. While you're running? While you're running. No way. Yeah, so. It looks funny.

You look really goofy, but, you know, I find, I have this place up in Connecticut where there's this kind of straightaway, and where it's right out on the water, it's beautiful and a very inspiring place to be, and it's kind of this straightaway of this kind of dirt path with some very tall marshland on the side. I go out there. I usually try to go in the middle of the day, and it's really sunny,, my chest and my body as I'm running and like getting flexible, trying to maximize flexibility. And I took my daughter out there and, you know,

and I was like, Hey, she's 10 and she can keep up with me now. And actually she dusts me to be honest with you. But she, she came out there with me and I, I was like, well,

this is the, this is the little area where I do my yoga. I'm like, you want to try it with me? She's like, sure. So we're doing it and we're opening up our chest and looking up and the sun's beating down. And she's like, Dad, what is this? What is this exercise all about?

And I said, well, you're kind of opening yourself up and letting God's light shine through you. And she's like, okay, okay. So then the next day, she's like, can I come with you again? And I was like, sure. So we went out there, and we did our yoga, and we came back to the house. And later that day, she was like, you know, I was out there, and I was trying to let God's light shine through me. And I came up with this wonderful idea.

And I said, well, what's the idea? And she's like, well, you know this big kind of yoga cultural center that you're opening in Hollywood? And I said, yeah. And she's like, what if that just became like a homeless shelter? And I was like, wow, that is a, I was like, I'm not sure my investors would love that idea, but that is a truly wonderful, inspired idea for anybody to have, but for a 10-year-old to be like, okay, for a moment,

and she was completely serious, but she let God's light shine through her, and that was God's idea that came into her. So it was pretty cool. So that's my yoga routine, and I don't have maybe ideas as inspired as that, but that's what I try to do as much as I can. Very cool.

Wow. That's awesome. When people come to the festival or to any of the events, excuse me, for Wanderlust, do they get a roadmap on how to find their true north or does it just happen organically kind of like the festival growth has been? Yeah it's funny that you say that because it's an internal

discussion that we've had uh i think one of the things that's really really cool and unique about our event is that it there's a choose your own adventure component to it so literally when you buy a ticket you're pushed into this huge scheduler and there's like 200 different classes or hikes or stand-up paddleboard or surfing lessons or farm-to-table things or whatever that you can choose from. And you literally create your own

customized schedule. And that's really cool. It's really unique. But what I've also felt is that it's a little overwhelming because people open up the schedule and they're like, oh my God, there's a hundred yoga classes. I don't know which one's right for me. So, you know, we've started to try to take our role as, you know, if you'll pardon the endless travel metaphors, as the navigator a little bit more now, where we are providing navigation

along this road to find your true north. And how do we do that? So we've started to create tracks, like are you a nature lover? Are you a beginner? What's going on? And as we kind of move into the future, do you have certain issues? Do you have sleeplessness problems or anxiety problems or stress or tight hamstrings or whatever? Uncertainty or whatever you have. Yeah. And as we kind of, I think, get our web development even more sophisticated, those are the things that we're thinking about sort of being able to add in. Now, we have that at a very basic level now where we have tracks that people can choose and they have a sort of a self-populated schedule. But I think what we want to do is take it kind of to

the next level where we really can help be the navigators to connect kind of expert advice, techniques, recipes for living, if you will, to individual people's needs and desires and wants. And I think to be able to be that navigator, to connect that line between the two, that's a great goal for us. Sure. That'd be amazing, I think. And a lot of my listeners, I got listeners from all over the world. We get about 800,000 downloads a month right now. And a lot of entrepreneurs, but then a lot of entrepreneurial thinkers, dreamers, and about 50-50 men and women,

a little bit more women actually listen to the podcast. And the thing that, the most common theme that comes up for me is people who are multimillionaires who listen and then there's people who are completely broke trying to figure out their lives. And the common theme is people that want to take, people that feel stuck, they don't know where to go in their, in the next step in their life, whether they're really successful or broke or in between, um, or they're just looking to

take, looking to figure out how to get to the next level. They're either stuck or they're just looking to figure out how to get to the next level. And, uh, I love your approach in the book. You know, you've got, I saw that Congressman Tim Ryan has a feature in here as well, and some other people like Gabby Bernstein, who's a friend. You've got some great features in here. Tim has been on the podcast as well. Now, is this, would you say that your book gives people the process and the roadmap, like your festival, for kind of figuring out how to get to

that next level or how to get unstuck or discover what their you know their true calling is do you feel like it has everything they need because there's a lot of exercise in here and incredible sections yeah to give them to give them that unstuck feeling i hope so i mean that was that's the idea you know it was very much modeled after this book called The Artist's Way. I don't know if you know that book, but it's Julia Cameron's book. But in the sense of its sort of interactivity and works and kind of projects and not really trying to be a coffee table, more like spill coffee on it, get into it, have it live in your life. get into it, um, you know, have it live in your life. You know, I hope that, you know, my goal with this one is I open a, I, I, I find it in a secondhand store and I open it up and it's got scrawled writing all up in it and dah, dah, dah. So that's kind of where I hope it goes. Um,

and yeah, I mean, I think, you know, there is, when I was approaching it, I was like, okay, you know, there's a challenge to it because there's a lot of contributors. And it would have been very easy just to go out to all of the thought leaders and the famous people or whatever and just narrative arc, some sort of pathway, some sort of throughput, some common voice to the whole thing. So when we started to kind of pave what that looks like, you know, we found and, you know, I started to create a table of contents that had a bit of an arc where, you know, you have to start somewhere. And starting is with finding your practice. What is that practice? I have to understand what that practice is. I have to start doing it five minutes, 10 minutes a day.

How do I find my teacher? All these very basic questions and answers that you need to confront at the beginning. And then sort of gradually as you get into the book, it becomes I think more sophisticated, more challenging and you get into places like, well, how do I really find my creative spark? How do I unlock that creativity? And then really towards

the end of like, how do I bring my best self into the world right now? How do I be, you know, actualize that my leadership qualities? How do I actually step into that version of my idealized version of myself? And, you know, that's the kind of pathway for the book. And, you know, I, and like the festival, and I think people are going to discover, you know, little kernels of wisdom that apply to themselves and then other things that don't. And that's perfectly fine. And this book, I don't think will ever be picked up in red cover to cover in a linear sequential way. I think they'll be, you know, you're going to open up in the middle or there's things that you're going to come back to or there's things you're going to resonate with.

You know, like for me, I am like I think a lot of people, I get feelings of powerlessness from time to time. I get feelings of powerlessness from time to time. Like, what can I, you know, I'm this tiny little singular person, you know, and there's a diabetes epidemic and there's people dying of heart disease and there's environmental catastrophe. And like, what am I going to do? Like, how am I going to turn back? How am I going to contribute to the betterment of mankind? And so, I don't know, Joel Salatin, who is one of the contributors to the book and has come and spoken at the events many times, you know, he, anytime I start to feel that powerlessness, I kind of come back to this idea that he talks about, idea that he talks about, which is our current state of being, all it is, is a aggregation of a billion little decisions, you know? And, you know, once you like learn how to cook a beet

or grow a basil plant on your windowsill in New York City or anything like that, then you become part of that change, part of those billions of little decisions. And I think now in this age of connectivity, if you can then take that and then all of a sudden you are part of a CSA and then or, you know, we actually run a raw milk distribution kind of thing. And then all of a sudden you're influencing those people. And that is a geometric progression that's pushing outwards. become, you know, those decisions, those little decisions, you know, you become part of that movement of the billions of decisions moving, you know, the current state of being. And, uh,

and that's, I think, very hopeful. Um, sure. And, uh, and that's something that I kind of come back to, you know, a lot that you actually can be a part of positive change. And it doesn't mean that you've got to be the president of the United States. In fact, it may be more powerful for you to do something in your own little community or in your own family. Sure. Yeah. I like that. And throughout the book, as I went through this, you cover a lot of things that I follow in my daily life. You talk about meditation and gratitude and overcoming fear and igniting your inner creativity, freeing your inner child, things like that. And you talk about having a mantra, how to create all these things, all these things that I talk about in the School of Greatness. So for me, I really resonate with

this. And I'm curious, what does a daily ritual for you look like? What are the must do things that you do every single day that serve you in staying on track to your true north? Yeah, you know, a couple of things. I mean, like I said before, trying to find some space, but there's some things that I do that are just very physical. And then there's actually some things that I do that are more mental. You know, I have a very, very simple meditation technique, which is honestly just, I wouldn't call myself an advanced meditator in any way. But I try to spend 10 minutes per day sitting quietly and really practicing non-attachment to thought.

And it's very, very hard because things are coming into your brain, but actually letting them come in and actually letting them go out without judgment and not being mad at yourself when they're actually coming in. But it's actually that process of letting them come in and watching them disappear and blowing them away and blowing them away. And it's really amazing.

When I do that and I'm doing that on a consistent basis, you just have so much more clarity. And your thought process is more focused. Your decision making is better. and your thought process is more focused, your decision-making is better, and you don't get as wound up with the little, you know, the million things per day that might go wrong or might go right.

You know, you just don't get as wound up. They just pass through. They just go away. You know, someone cuts you off at an intersection or whatever. It just goes away. It just poof, out. So you train your mind.

I mean, that's a training. That's a kind of a training to be able to get to that place. And when you're doing it a lot, it's great because you don't really let things bother you anymore, which is really nice. And then there's some just physical things. I was an athlete, continue to be sort of a weekend warrior, to be honest.

But for me, I carry around a lot of stress, a lot of tension in my hips. I actually had a hip replacement at a pretty young age, um, last year. And, uh, I'm 44. So, yeah. So yeah. So that, and that was a big, big thing. It was really mostly because I had been pounding away on basketball courts and tennis courts all my life but you know I have to so I carry a lot of stiffness and I have kind of lack of range of motion in my hips

so I try to spend at least 20 minutes in Varasana every day and that's just sitting on a, and stretching my hips and kind of, you know, the front parts of my legs and things like that. And you can do that and be a dude. You can actually do that and drink a beer and watch a basketball game. Um, but it's, uh, but that's something kind of just physically that I try to do, um, you know, every day. Um, and then there's just like, you know, I have my things,

you know, I have exercise, morning exercise ritual. And during that ritual, I actually, it's also kind of, it's a physical, obviously, cardio ritual, but I really try to find a place to lead with grace. And I try to remind myself of that every day, of that, you know, I'm blessed to work every day with, you know, some just absolutely talented, gifted, you know, a lot of young people here in the office. And that they're looking, you know, to me, and it's hard to remember that all

the time, but they're looking to me for leadership and, you know, trying to find that place of grace, uh, with which to lead. And a lot of that is about listening. It's about, um, being compassionate. It's about letting other people have the best ideas. Um, and, uh, and, you know, Um, and, uh, and, you know, just trying to find that grace. Um, and that's, you know, I mean, I, I'm, you know, on a good day, I'm barely successful. Um, you know, but that's it. But I try to remind myself that every day, um, because it's actually one of the best parts of my existence and my job. It's not even really a job, it's just a life, but here is

watching the flourishing of young people. And, you know, we're, I think, you know, we're like 58 women and two guys or something here. And, you know, I have three daughters. So, you know, in some ways my plight as a human, I think is in some ways to contribute to woman, womanhood in some fashion. And, um, and I just love watching, uh, the young creative women here become sort of empowered and take on new challenges and, you know, own an ownership and, uh, and kind of move up within the company and feel good about that. And so that's a great part of my existence. That's cool.

And what's your mantra when things don't go the way they're supposed to? Well, I'm not sure I'm allowed to talk about my mantra because it's very personal. But I will say, I'll give you another just brief story about mantra because I do have like a non-personal one as well. So in my last life, my last kind of career in music, I was representing a lot of extremely talented musicians. And I had this one wonderful singer, a very young woman, who joined Herbie Hancock's band for a couple of tours. And it was amazing.

I got to know Herbie a bit. And I wasn't going to all the shows, but I was going to enough of them. And he had a ritual backstage. He's a Buddhist. And that he would practice before going on stage and so i brought my my daughter comes back into it again phoebe who was pretty young at that point maybe five and i brought her backstage at carnegie hall uh when herbie was playing there and he had kind of his own little private dressing room within a bigger dressing room. And he said, you know, it was maybe 20 minutes before he would go on and he would invite everyone to come in and chant in his dressing room.

And so, you know, a couple of us would go in there and he would chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. And, you know, that's his chant. I should know more about exactly what it is, but is a Buddhist chant that gets I think that is part of a regular mantra for a lot of people and so I sat there with my daughter and for 20 minutes to chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo

without stopping it actually takes a tremendous amount of endurance, energy but she just stuck with it my daughter did the whole time and so that sort of became our sort of go-to uh our go-to mantra and we'll still chant that together quite often you know we'll go in the sauna or we'll just find some quiet time somewhere and and or often in the car on long road trips we'll do a long chants of nam-myoho-renge-kyo. And that becomes our go-to mantra.

That's cool. And I've got a few questions left for you, but I want to ask what do you think is the most powerful way to wind things down and go to sleep? What's the most powerful process? Yeah, that's a good one. Because that is such a big deal right now for so many people, sleeplessness. And I'll say that there have been times in my life where I've struggled with it.

I mean, a lot of it is like the obvious stuff. I mean, I think we've heard a lot about at this point, which is, you know, um, too much, you know, digitizing, um, too close to bed. But I would say, you know, especially I think as you get a little bit older, um, that for me, it's a lot about diet and eating. It's actually an eating schedule. And, uh, I try almost never to eat after seven, seven 3030 because my body has a much harder time digesting and you wake up. And so that's a big thing for me. I think it is really good to the degree that you can

to get some separation from your digital devices and your emails and that sort of stuff. I think to store your computer and your phone in another room other than your bedroom. So charge them in your office or downstairs or wherever, but not in your bedroom. And I think that's a good one because that makes you put them somewhere

and then it's like a trick. And then you go into your bedroom to go to sleep. So, you know, I think those two things, you know, are huge. You know, breathing is obviously such a big one of being very, very conscious of your breath. If you can just spend, you know, I mean, and honestly, it just doesn't take that much time. It just takes the discipline to do it. So if you can just take five minutes and breathe consciously aware of each inhale and each exhale. And again, there's going to be thoughts that come into your head, but just let them pass through and just concentrate on your breath.

And when you lose that momentum or that concentration, just come back to it, come back to your breath. And the whole thing is actually about knowing that you are going to screw up, but that it's okay. And then you kind of emerge out of the other side of that. And I think you have a much, much easier time going to sleep. You know, I think the other thing is reading. You know, I don't know. Like people don't really read.

I mean, they read blogs. Or tweets. Tweets. Yeah, maybe not even blogs. But yeah, I mean, you know, reading books. That's a pretty good. I like it. I read, has Dan Harris ever books, that's a pretty good. I like it. I read, has Dan Harris ever been on the show?

If not, he should be because I just finished his book and I thought it was great. I'll have to get him on, yeah. Three questions left for you. One is, with everything you've learned in your life so far, if you had to sum it up into three truths that you know to be true about life and, you know, everything you've learned from the events, from producing, from traveling, you know, you grew up in many different places all over the world, I read as well. You lived all over the place, your family. If you could sum what you've learned so far in three

truths, what would the three truths about life be? Three truths. Well, I think one would be about process. That life is process. And, you know, this has proven true over and over again in my life, but certainly with Wanderlust, is there was no one single moment that all of a sudden like, oh my God, this thing is huge now. Or, you know, oh my God, you know, now we can do this. It was actually just simply, you know, it's chop wood, carry water, to be honest. It's that life is about a process of doing things every day and taking joy in them.

And that it's not about a single inflection point. So I think that that's a big one trying to you know live life as a process um i think you know one thing that i have learned more and more especially i think this was really came true when i had kids is that you know as a young person and maybe a single person or someone without kids, that you are the absolute center of your universe. And that, you know, as you, I think, grow and mature and perhaps have kids or have things that become important and that you slowly become, you're not the nucleus anymore, you become sort of an electron and you're sort of pushed out of the center of the universe. And that you have an actual wisdom in some ways or a viewpoint in towards the universe because you're no longer inside of it anymore.

because you're no longer inside of it anymore. And I think, you know, having that awareness that you are not the center of the universe, that you're actually floating around the outside and you have some sort of objectivity to look in, I think is sort of a path towards grace in some ways. So, you know, I'm not sure that's as concise as I'd want it to be, but next time you have me on the show, I'll have that one really nailed. Okay. Um, so I sounded like awareness was, yeah, yeah. I think that being aware, like learning to be aware

of yourself in the world. Yeah. Learning to be aware of yourself. Um, and I guess that's, you know, that's what we're talking about with the zone, with, you know, having that awareness of your body and space. And so, you know, I think that those two things are, you know, being thankful and having gratitude for living the life that, you know, we are able to lead. It's, you know, it's hard to always recognize that because we all have our battles. And, but we are so lucky and blessed to be, I mean, certainly I am, to have a wonderful family and to be doing something every day that I absolutely love to do. And, you know, like there's this kind of exercise, I think it was initially I learned about it in a book called From Good to Great. But I think it's this kind of notion of finding your hedgehog,

which I also think is kind of a landmark forum idea too, but of kind of drawing these Venn diagrams and of like, here's what you love to do, here's what you're best at in the world, and here's what you can actually make a living doing. And putting those circles over each other and finding that delta is a pretty, and I've been fortunate enough to find that delta of being able to do what I absolutely love to do every day. And I'm very grateful for that.

So I think gratitude would be the last one. That's cool. My next question was going to be what are you most grateful for, so I'm glad you just answered it. it. Before I ask the final question, I want to make sure that everyone gets a moment to check out Wanderlust, the book, Modern Yogi's Guide to Discovering Your Best Self and Find Your True North. And it's not, you know, you don't have to be a yogi to go through this process in this book. There are a lot of yoga influences and language, but the content is about finding your best self and bringing that practice into your life as well. So make sure to have that. Get the copy of the book. I'll have it linked up on

the show notes. I'll tell you where to go here in a second. And also, you know, check out, what's the website? Is it just wanderlust.com or wanderlustfestivals? Wanderlust.com. There you go. Make sure to check that out and check on an event near you. Before I ask the final question, Jeff, I want to take a moment to acknowledge you because for me, what you've created in the last decade is, oh, I guess actually six years, but from the idea you had almost 10 years ago,

it's something that's so needed in the world right now. And I can only imagine the lives that have been changed and evolved and lives that are happier with less stress that have deeper, meaningful relationships because of what they have experienced and created for themselves from your movement, your ideas, your creation in the messiness of running a mega business that you have with all the moving parts is I'm sure that can be stressful in and of itself, especially with investors and 60 women to manage in their every day. So thank you for what you're creating because it's so needed. And I know you're making a huge impact in the world. Thank, final question is what is your definition of greatness? Well, can I tell you, I'll tell you a story for that one. So, and this is actually also what gets me up in the morning. Um, so a couple of years ago for Wanderlust, we had, um,

we had, uh, um, a contest where to submit videos, to teach at Wanderlust. And it's become a thing that a lot of teachers want to be involved in. And so we thought it was kind of a good social thing and people were going to submit videos. And so we got a ton of videos in. And there was a woman from Portland, Oregon, and she sent in a video. And she was cool.

She didn't actually match the stereotype of what maybe your yogi teacher or your yoga teacher would kind of look like. She was really, really cool. She was a DJ. She was a guitar player, yoga teacher. She had her own kale chips. She made this awesome video. She had this crazy afro with all sorts of crazy hair color, like pink hair. But she was just really cool, and she made really a beautiful, heartfelt video.

And there were a lot of other great videos, too. But she took it. She won it. And so I got to email her. I was so happy and be like, her name is Bebe and I said, hey Bebe awesome, thanks so much for your

submission, we just loved it and so did everybody else because it got the most likes and now we'll pay for you to come to Wanderlust and teach and everything like that so she did and I saw her at the event and I said, hi, and so you fast forward and it was a Sunday in February, super cold. And, uh, I remember getting

an email in the morning and said, you know, dear Jeff, um, you know, thank you so much for having me teach at Wanderlust. It was from Bebe. I realized that day that I could align all my passions of music and yoga and make them come together in one inspired life. And I was reading this, I was like, great. And she's like, and by the way, I'm playing a show later tonight. I'll be on TV. And I said, okay, you know, by the way, I'm playing, you know, a show later tonight, you know, I'll be on TV.

And I said, OK, great. So, of course, then I was like, I sort of forgot about it. And I was like, well, that's so awesome that someone would reach out and, you know, express their appreciation. So then I'm watching the Super Bowl that night and Beyonce is on the halftime show. And Beyonce comes out and sings and like she's singing acapella and then this woman steps out and there she is it's Bebe Miguel and she does this ripping solo on guitar going back and forth with Beyonce and Beyonce's like you know doing these acapella improvisations and Bebe's there just like ripping just the two of them and i was like and

it was just like tremendous you know there's like fireworks going off and like you know 120 million 20 million people whatever it is watching i think it's the biggest you know uh broadcasts and every every year and i was like wow that is amazing that this woman would take time, you know, on like what had to be kind of the biggest day of her life to take the live her dream, to, you know, live that inspired life, to find that true North, to align all of the things that she was passionate about, um, and to make them a reality and then to kind of crystallize them there, you know, in front of 120 million people, not everybody gets to do that, but still that was really meaningful. I come back to that story quite a lot because it's an inspiration for me

and it should be for all of us that we can find that thing that we are super, super passionate about doing and align all of our interests in kind of unlocking our creative potential and living that inspired life. Jeff Krasnow, co-founder of Wanderlust Festivals, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you. It's totally my pleasure. There you have it, guys. Thanks again so much to Jeff for coming on today and sharing his wisdom.

I love what he said here at the end of this interview. on today and sharing his wisdom. I love what he said here at the end of this interview. Make sure to check out his book, Wanderlust, which is a modern yogi's guide to discovering your best self. Again, it's a beautiful book. I'm looking at it right now. It's something for everyone in this book. I really appreciate the work and the detail they put into this. Make sure to check it out. Also, go to the show notes to get all of the links and resources where you can learn more about Jeff and what he's doing over at lewishouse.com slash 186. We'll have all the links that we talked about here today from this episode. Very excited to connect more with him and his community because I think it's incredible what they're doing. Again, if you enjoyed this episode, make sure to head back to lewishouse.com slash 186 and share this with your friends. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to head back to lewishouse.com slash 186 and share this with your friends.

If you have a friend you think would be really interested in hearing more about Wanderlust, the movement, and learning the tools that Jeff talks about to apply to their life, then make sure to send them this via an email. Let them know about it or post this on your Facebook page, Twitter, Google+, all the places online that you can share this. It would mean the world to me. I appreciate you guys for spreading the message about the School of Greatness. This thing wouldn't be able to grow without you. I guess it's similar to Wanderlust in a sense where it's the community that helps make it spread so much farther than the people behind it.

So again, thank you guys so much for all that you do to share the message of greatness, So, again, thank you guys so much for all that you do to share the message of greatness, to allow me to keep finding great guests like Jeff to come on because the platform is growing so much larger than it could ever be before. So you guys know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Thank you. Outro Music you