Art of Shaving Pioneer Eric Malka on Entrepreneurship, Passion, and AI Education

Eric Malka, the inventive mind behind The Art of Shaving, joins us to unravel the synergy between entrepreneurship and wellness. From his audacious journey to New York City at 17 with just $100, Eric shares not just his story but invaluable strategies for navigating today’s entrepreneurial maze. We explore his "crawl, walk, run, and fly" philosophy, emphasizing patience and the art of starting small while dreaming big. Eric's journey is a testament to the balance between risk and reward, and his insights into building a business with authenticity and passion are both practical and inspiring.

Passion is at the heart of every successful venture, and Eric's narrative underscores this truth. We dive into the origins of The Art of Shaving, born from a deep commitment to natural wellness and luxury. Eric demonstrates how passion often ignites through action, guiding us to identify what genuinely excites and motivates. His reflections remind us that the path to discovering our true calling is often winding, with failures serving as stepping stones to success. The importance of a growth mindset, coupled with resilience and grit, shines through in every anecdote he shares.

In addition to Eric's journey, we also venture into broader themes of supporting future entrepreneurs and fostering AI literacy. Eric's dedication to mentorship and education highlights the ongoing cycle of learning and growth that characterizes the entrepreneurial spirit. His collaboration with initiatives like the Soul Tech Foundation indi

Spiritual guru, two-time #1 best-selling author, and higher consciousness advocate Shaman Isis (aka Cynthia L. Elliott) is on a mission to turn the tide of the mental and spiritual health crisis with mindfulness practices, incredible events, powerful content, and motivational storytelling that inspire your heroes journey! Learn more about her books, courses, speaking engagements, book signings, and appearances at ShamanIsis.com.

Ready for a life transformation? Ready to bring your dreams to life? Then you will want Glowup With Shaman Isis: The Collection of inspiring books and courses filled with life lessons and practices that raise your vibration and consciousness. 

Ready for a life transformation? Ready to bring your dreams to life? Then you will want Glowup With Shaman Isis: The Collection of inspiring books and courses filled with life lessons and practices that raise your vibration and consciousness. 

Chapters

• 0:59 Entrepreneurship and Wellness Strategies
• 11:12 Discovering Passion Through Action
• 15:08 Entrepreneurial Journey
• 25:25 Entrepreneurial Mindset and Wellness Practices
• 37:39 Supporting AI Education and Literacy

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:00

Hello, hello, hello and welcome to Citizen Journalist. I'm your host, cynthia L Elliott, also known as Shaman Isis to those of you who read my Conscious Living books or follow my newsletter. I am super excited about today's episode because I'm getting to cover something I haven't covered in a while, and that is the wellness world and entrepreneurship, and I am really delighted to be bringing a guest to you that knows both of those worlds incredibly well. Eric Malka, most well known for being the genius behind the art of shaving, is joining us today. Eric, thank you so much for coming on the show.

Speaker 2: 1:35

Thank you so much. I would take all the credit for the art of shaving but you know my wife is really the the genius in the family.

Speaker 1: 1:44

There you go. I see he's a smart man. This is a smart man, Eric. Do you think you could spend a second just sharing a little bit about your journey with our audience before we kick into Sure?

Speaker 2: 1:55

I love talking about myself. So my journey started in 1985. I was living in Montreal, Canada, at the time. No prospects, I hated my life and I decided to sell a few belongings, buy a Greyhound bus ticket to New York City and I arrived at Port Authority. I was 17 years old, as a non-documented immigrant, with $100 in my pocket, no education and really all the odds stacked against me. Fast forward 24 years later. I sell my brand to Gillette and P&G and you know that's really my story and what happens in between.

Speaker 2: 2:40

All that is all documented in my book entitled On the Razor's Edge, and now I'm focused on helping young entrepreneurs by young, I mean young in their journey you know aspiring entrepreneurs would be the right way to say it to achieve their goals. You know, we learn things along the way, as you know, and I want to share those with the next generation of entrepreneurs. That's what I do.

Speaker 1: 3:09

Such a powerful story, I think most people would be absolutely terrified to come to New York, especially because when you came to New York at 17, new York was not the New York it is now. It was a lot more dangerous.

Speaker 2: 3:20

I almost got killed in New York when I was 19 years old.

Speaker 1: 3:24

It was a crazy town.

Speaker 2: 3:26

But you know that raises the idea that when you're young you take more risks. You know I wouldn't do this, probably now, but at 17,. I wasn't thinking straight. You know I was acting before thinking about it.

Speaker 1: 3:41

Yeah, it's amazing. It was for those of you who are a little bit younger, uh, or maybe haven't spent much time in New York. New York was a very exciting place in the 90s. You could come here with no degree, no ties. This is what I did as a southerner. I came here in the mid 90s um, uh, very young, and also managed to, you know, fall into some really incredible luck with a lot of hard work. So I love your journey.

Speaker 1: 4:08

We'll be touching more on Eric's journey throughout the episode and how it can help other people learn to build beautiful lives and businesses. We're going to touch on both wellness, spirituality, mindset and, of course, focus on entrepreneurship. You know, I think a lot of people will identify with being tired of hearing about and seeing stories about the same handful of companies that have just you know, that dominate their market, that dominate the news and, while they're great success stories and they're interesting, they don't really help most people in navigating the entrepreneurial journey that exists now. And, eric, I'd love to hear from you about this. One of my frustrations is I talk to people and they keep, they're stuck in the way things worked five, 10 years ago. I'm not talking about the technology or what's trendy now, but they actually think that the opportunities that were there when they were coming up are things that actually exist now, and they don't understand how incredibly difficult it's actually become. Can you touch on that? The difficulty of the entrepreneurial journey?

Speaker 2: 5:12

Yeah, look, I try to lead my life and businesses and what I coach is really principles that are time and what I coach is really principles that are time-tested, right. And one of those I think one of the biggest pitfalls of entrepreneurship is thinking that it's going to be easier and it's going to take less time and less money than you thought. Success takes time, and if you try to go way too fast in the beginning I've made that mistake in my life If you try to go way too fast when you're not I've done, I've made that mistake in my life If you try to go way too fast when you're not ready, that's a recipe for disaster. So you know, I think the I'm trying to change the conversation that I've been hearing from thought leaders in the last five to 10 years from scaling fast, make mistakes quickly and you know 10X, you're work 10 times harder than everyone else. I think those are good messages.

Speaker 2: 6:04

But you know, the message that I like to put out there is really think big but start small. You know we make a lot of mistakes as entrepreneurs. It's part of you know, it's part of the course. So might as well make mistakes by going slowly and once you figure out and once you get your bearings, once you understand your business model and you understand how this will work at a larger scale, you can start picking up speed. Another one of my principles is what I call crawl, walk, run and fly. I find that people try to go way too fast and jump the stages of the startup phases.

Speaker 2: 6:53

So, that's where I start.

Speaker 1: 6:55

I like that. I think that's really good advice. I hear a lot of repetitiveness, a lot of focus on you're not. If you're not succeeding, it's because you're not working hard enough and it's and I I really like cringe when I especially I see that from people whose success was built at a time the core, the nut of their success, was built at a time when the world is not actually the same anymore and they want to keep applying those same old lessons and I just don't think it helps anything and it makes people feel guilty for spending any time having an actual life. Um, what would your?

Speaker 2: 7:26

yeah, I I wish you know, I did that when I was younger. I was obsessive about my work, but you know I think you know wellness needs to be a part of your success strategy, in my opinion. I think a healthy, emotional, physical, spiritual side of your being is going to help you achieve success more. I think it should be part of your entrepreneurial strategy more than anything else, and then, when you are successful, you'll be a better person to enjoy it later on. I see a lot of people giving up their health for success, and that, I think, is a real miss.

Speaker 1: 8:06

Yeah, no, I hear a lot of people saying like, if you're, you know, sleep four hours, work out two hours a day, you know all these things that have nothing to do with family, friends, actual life and doing things, and it's like you know, there, there I would. I would much rather hear them say look, you need to make a decision. Uh, about this, you know, it's more of a conscious approach than sort of scream yelling some some one-liner from something that worked for them, you know here's a question I start with when I coach anyone is what do you want you know?

Speaker 2: 8:42

and people are really surprised when they hear this. They're like, oh my God, I don't know you know, or I need to think about this. Can I get back to you, you know? I'm like, oh, you haven't even thought about what you wanted. It's like you know we're going on a road trip. Where are you going? I don't know, you know. Road trip. Where are you going? I don't know, you know, I have no idea. So it starts with that and it's very easy question but very difficult answer. You gotta take a deep and real instant. What is it that you want you know and how are you going to be useful in this world?

Speaker 1: 9:16

yeah, you know I it's. I'm glad you brought that up, because I I think that's not. I masked for a really long time because I wanted to be accepted. I didn't want people to know about my gritty background because it didn't. It didn't pair well with being a glamorous fashion girl. And that masking for decades, which is what we're sort of. We're sort of born into a world that teaches us to mask at a very young age. It sort of takes the original spirit out of us as children and says here's the behavior that will make you acceptable. And acceptance is not mental health. For the record, folks, assimilation is not mental health. And when I finally did wake up, I realized that I had never actually asked myself that question. So would you say that's probably the first, one of the first questions that they should start perseverating more about?

Speaker 2: 10:05

In every area of your life. That's the first question you should ask, and it's not being selfish. You know you can bring people along. You know you can have the best interest in the world in mind, but if you're not really true to yourself and what you want, whether it's what do I want in my personal life? What do I want in my health? What do I want in my professional world? You know, because, look, uh, the one thing that entrepreneurs have is the ability to choose what they want. You know, when you work for a company, you got to do what they tell you, but when you're working for yourself, uh, you have the right and there's no one putting a gun to your head saying you need to be the next Steve Jobs. You know you can have a small business that just supports you and you know you're not working for anyone. You know what you want is completely customizable to you, and that's the first step.

Speaker 2: 11:07

I think it's, you know, 50% at least of getting there is knowing where you want to you, and that's the first step. I think it's a you know, 50% at least of getting there is knowing where you want to go.

Speaker 1: 11:13

Yeah, yeah. Where's the car, Where's the? What's the end point on the map? When, when it comes to you're, you're excellent at branding and for those of you who you didn't get a chance to hear our pre-conversation, but I watched the Art of Shaving, which is the company that Eric started be built, and the branding and the purity of the offer, the product was superior, Like it was just really well done. What would be? So somebody knows what they want and they have the big idea. What would your advice be about the branding and marketing?

Speaker 2: 11:49

aspect. Well, I have to give credit to my wife for some of that impeccable taste that she has. I'm more of, you know I have my own talents, don't get me wrong. But you know aesthetics is definitely the creative side of the family is on her. You know, for us, we both embarked on a natural wellness journey early on, when it wasn't popular to be vegetarian or to go to health food stores, which were hard to find at the time.

Speaker 2: 12:23

And when we did, you know, when we decided to start the art of shaving for us, um, it was no pun intended. It was natural for us to go towards promoting health. So when we created our brand, um, there were a few things that we infused into the category. Shaving is not my passion, but I know it's. It's my opportunity.

Speaker 2: 12:46

What we did with that category, what we did with that opportunity, is what we're passionate about. Then we're passionate about people we're passionate about. Then we're passionate about people. We're passionate about quality, you know, luxury and natural ingredients. So we brought all these things together and we created an incredible culture, both with consumers, customers and employees and vendors. We elevated the category to a very luxurious, beautifully packaged brand and inside the bottles, we put in ingredients that were promoting health natural ingredients, essential oils, removing all the toxic ingredients that are commonly found in personal care products and that became, you know, one of the secrets to our success is really to infuse our talents and passion, and those things are usually, you know, what you're really good at, what you're passionate about. You know that's something that needs to be the crossroads of how you make money in this world.

Speaker 2: 13:47

So I would say that's how we did it.

Speaker 1: 13:50

Nice, I appreciate that you touched on that about finding what you're passionate about, and I think that it's difficult for a lot of people to get away from the idea of creating a business because it fits into this, this or this, and actually becoming learning to know themselves well enough to understand what will keep them fiery, excited about life for a long time, and that's why we see so much of people starting things and dropping them, and starting things and dropping them because they're not focusing on figuring out that and making that a part of their journey. We also don't live in a world that actually says like what are you actually? What's going to keep you like excited, um, for years to come?

Speaker 1: 14:36

uh, if somebody wants to find their passion. Do you have any suggestions for that?

Speaker 2: 14:41

well, uh, finding your passions, I mean. I'll tell you one thing action is the first. You know part of that right. A lot of people think find your passion, you know, have your vision, then get motivated, then take action. Actually, it's the opposite, that is true. You take action and then you find your passion, and sometimes you're going down the wrong path, and that's helping you find your right path. But I think what you were touching up on before is the difference between starting a company and starting a brand.

Speaker 2: 15:15

Starting a company is a way to make money for yourself. Starting a brand is an extension of who you are. It's it's turning you, your value proposition as a human being, into a company and it's harder to do but it's much more interesting. That's where you know passion and professionalism. Professional life kind of crosses path and at the end it could be a lot more valuable as a business that's a, that's I.

Speaker 1: 15:51

Uh, and just from my own personal experience, I I've started businesses several times because that's the only I didn't know who I would. You know, I've been masking for a long time, so I didn't really know who I was or what I liked, which means it's hard to find your purpose If you don't really even know what kind of music you like, cause all you do is work and, uh, the process of detangling myself from the businesses that I'd started and just and getting the nerve to walk away, Cause sometimes that's what it takes, or you're just going to keep doing it and not doing what, what your passion and, um, allowing myself to to, to throwing myself out there, to be afraid, Cause it. I mean, why? No, we want to be fearless, we don't want to live in fear. That's the lower levels of human consciousness, but it takes a level of fearlessness and kind of like allowing yourself to be afraid, to take the leap.

Speaker 2: 16:40

It's a leap of faith. I would say it's a leap of faith. Um, you know fear is over. You know, disproportionately thinking something bad's going to happen. Uh, a leap of faith is thinking everything will eventually work itself out if I go in the right direction.

Speaker 1: 16:59

So I agree putting yourself out there, yeah, and I think there's a lot to be said too for that. There's a difference in those two things. One is resting in the negative, that's the fear, and the other one is taking action, like you said, uh and having positive energy towards its outcome, regardless of what the actual outcome is. It is perception based. It is yeah, we have to let go of outcome.

Speaker 2: 17:23

I mean, we can't control that. We can only control what we're doing right now, as best we can. But you know a lot of people tell me I was very courageous to sell my car for $12,000 and start the art of shaving. And you know I was like, listen, I have no plan B. What was I? You know, you know this was not risky for me.

Speaker 2: 17:41

This is you know, this was you know. This is zero risk. I took risks later on. I take risks all the time, but that was not risk to me. I think when you have a great career, you know you're getting a comfortable income and benefits, and you quit that to go pursue your dream, you're taking some risks, although you know how big a risk is it really? What's the worst thing that could happen? Do you really you know? I think it's more about asking yourself are you, how how much do you really want what you're talking about? You know we say we want to do this and this and that, but we don't do it. And and is it fear? Or is fear just an excuse? Um, you know, when you really want something, nothing's going to stop you from from going after it, and it's gonna. You know you're gonna be challenged along the way. You know you're gonna have to slay the dragon more than once to achieve greatness in your world yeah, I love that you said that, because that was something I I had.

Speaker 1: 18:43

I was fortunate, uh, that when I did start things, um, they were successful immediately, so I hadn't had the the lovely experience of starting something and then failing repeatedly. And I got that. I got a nice taste of that, and I don't think there's actually enough conversation around the fact the growth going and, uh, and that was a real. That took me like a year and a half on my journey of just getting myself to a place where I was willing to fail, um, not just in failing and starting a business Cause I'm in that that painful process of getting financing, which is brutal, but uh, but also just, you know, as a spiritual teacher and a channel, um, doing events where no one showed up.

Speaker 1: 19:37

You know, when I first started, you know knocking on doors, if you will, and I had not experienced what having to go through the failure was. And so at first I was so overwhelmed by it not being perfect that I couldn't actually see the lessons in it. Perfect, but I couldn't actually see the lessons in it and that those were not only was it a sign that I was stretching myself and pursuing it regardless. Um, it was that I couldn't see the lessons in those moments and what I was meant to learn in those moments, cause I was so hyper focused on um, it wasn't perfect. You know, uh, uh, and I I think there's something to be said for being willing to fail and then not letting the failures deter you, and reframing situations.

Speaker 2: 20:22

You know, reframing situations, it doesn't happen overnight. Overnight success, they extend to 20 years. One of my favorite quotes is from Nelson Mandela he never, he never loses. He either wins or learns. Right, it's, it's that classic mindset. You talked about mindset before. I think mindset is everything, especially as an entrepreneur or as we navigate through this crazy world. You know, keeping your mindset in check is is going to help you get, and it's about chipping at it. You know, to me, it's a lot more important to know where you're heading and being on that lane towards that goal and going very slowly than to be going fast nowhere.

Speaker 1: 21:09

Yeah, yeah. Also, too, I think you had touched on something being willing to see the opportunities that if you can't if you can't see you're talking about learning like Nelson Mandela, you can become so obsessed with it, with it turning out a specific way, that you don't see the opportunity that lies in the swerves and the curves the opportunity that lies in the swerves and the curves?

Speaker 2: 21:39

yep, uh, for sure. I mean, we overthink everything. Uh, we have biases. We have to. We have we're our own worst enemies. That's why mental health and working on yourself as early as you can physically, mentally, emotionally is going to help you get there, because we are our own limitations in this world, and the the faster we expand our limitations, the faster we'll get to wherever we want to go.

Speaker 2: 22:02

Uh, so I, I'm a I consider myself to be an extremely lucky guy. I was at the right place at the right time. I met the right people. So many times I felt like, like pinching myself. I was like this is really lucky, that I got this. And what is luck? I asked myself how do you get luck? Is it something that's just from angel looking over your shoulder? I mean, is it just that, or is it something that you can actually provoke? And I believe that seizing opportunities is what causes luck to come your way, and missing opportunities is what potentially the opposite can happen in your life. That's my theory. But you know, obviously you have to be. You know you have to hustle. If you don't hustle, you're not going to be lucky in this world. Yeah, no, that's right.

Speaker 1: 22:52

So you got to hustle and you're not going to be lucky in this world. Yeah, no, that's right. So you got to hustle and you got to be prepared for opportunity, because that's what luck is.

Speaker 2: 23:00

Yeah, it's not going to come get you on the couch watching TV, that's for sure.

Speaker 1: 23:04

What are some of the mistakes that you see people making in their entrepreneurship journey, or perhaps that you made yourself, if you made any, yeah yeah, that's how I've learned.

Speaker 2: 23:16

That's how I've learned to recognize them and others. Right, I've made them myself and I've looked back. I've learned. You know people say you learn more from your mistakes than from your successes. I disagree with that. I've learned from both. Really, I mean, to be able to go full circle with my business was an incredible journey. I mean, I've learned so much, but I've learned tremendously from my mistakes.

Speaker 2: 23:42

And you know, there's so many pitfalls, there's so many pitfalls out there, but some, some that come to mind for me is, as we talked about, is trying to go too fast. You know, getting ahead of your skis is probably the best way to get hurt on the mountain, right? So, you know, start slowly and really get your bearings before you start to pick up. Scale right. Everybody wants to scale fast. I want to grow. I want to grow, grow, grow. You know that mindset could be the worst thing that's ever happened to you. Um, you know people try to expand when their business model is not ready. You know people don't a lot of entrepreneurs don't understand what having a business model means. They think it's what they sell or do, as you know, as an industry. Uh, I sell you know motor parts.

Speaker 2: 24:35

No, that's not your business model, that's your product, that's your reason for existing right. A business model is is having a clear, proven process how to acquire and retain customers. Once you figure out how that machine works, that's your business model. Now you can expand by doing that at a larger scale. You know, in my case we had a business model of opening stores and we had to make sure that those stores were. That business model was well fine-tuned, right the size, how much it costs to build one, how it operates, how much money it produces, how much profit it makes. Okay, now we have this model and now we can just open them all over the country. And we've opened 150 stores around the country.

Speaker 2: 25:25

But it took years. You know, my company went from zero to ten million dollars in nine years and then it went to $100 million in another nine years. You know so that exponential growth, and you know that's a 20 year journey. I think if your business, if you find out your business is not good, it's going to take you five years. If you find out it's good, it's going to take you 10 to 20 to really build it from scratch.

Speaker 2: 25:54

When you look at all these great companies out there, you know, I mean, there's exceptions to the rule. For sure, especially in the digital age, we can scale much faster than we could have in the 90s, but still, when you look at some of the greatest companies out there, even Google, it didn't take three years for google to be google, you know? Um, I think I remember in the 90s I could buy an apple stock for 25 cents when they were about to go bankrupt, you know. So, yeah, it takes time. It takes time and there's obstacle along the way. You're going to be challenged. It's not for the faint of heart. It takes grit. You know, in my book I talk about grit, prudence and timing. I mean, those are the three intangibles that I believe were instrumental in my journey.

Speaker 1: 26:50

Wow, I think the grit thing is actually super important because it takes getting told no, getting accustomed to the idea that you will get told no, and there will be many people who will not respond and some who will respond and be rude that up, because that's not something that I had experienced previously and it wasn't until this entrepreneurial journey.

Speaker 1: 27:16

You know, like I said, I had started two businesses, but both of them started out with really massive international clients and so I never had to knock on doors, I never had to beg for support or, you know, put in all the you know that kind of stuff, the process of trying to get funding for an entrepreneurship journey, and, uh, and that's been brutal for me.

Speaker 1: 27:34

Not to mention, I've had three, three, three, three people steal, steal an idea from me in the last four months, not even just like trying to hide it, just took the whole idea and stuck it on their website. Um, thank goodness I have a lot of ideas, but that that that process has been brutal and I think, um, having the confidence, the confidence in whatever ideas you're doing, trusting yourself, that you know, if something does happen and something you're doing gets stolen, either you're going to make it work in a different way, unique way, you're going to find a way to tweak it and keep going with it. Or if you get told no, or people don't respond or they're ugly, you just have to, you know, have faith in what you're doing and keep going and keep knocking.

Speaker 2: 28:22

And that is something that doesn't really get talked about. Very often Did you have to knock on a?

Speaker 1: 28:26

lot of doors. Did I mention I started with a hundred dollars?

Speaker 2: 28:29

I mean no you didn't, but that helps. Um, yeah, I, you know, I I was just very lucky in some ways that I had a. I had a. I have a very positive mindset. I've always looked at every obstacle and challenge and failure in my life as an opportunity.

Speaker 2: 28:48

I just I can't help it and I think you know I take incredible responsibility in everything that happens to me good, bad and ugly, um and I believe everything has an opportunity in it. I just uh, today we we're announcing that we're closing one of our companies, um, and I'll tell you, uh, that failure has led me to write my book and to understand that I want to dedicate my life to investing in small businesses, coaching young entrepreneurs and really do what I'm really passionate about. So everything that happens to me is leading me towards you know, just have to be open. Open to it.

Speaker 2: 29:30

If you start beating yourself up about failures and and that you're no good. I mean, I was also lucky that in my teenagers. I mean, I had it a little rough, not that bad, but I got a chip on my shoulder. You know, I thought I wasn't worthy, everybody thought I was gonna fail in life and I wanted to prove the world wrong and you know, I think that was the fire in my belly. Not not wanting to change the world, not wanting to make money. That was, you know, those things were in my mind. But now I realized that my real fire was worthy being. You know, that worth self-worth issue.

Speaker 2: 30:10

When I was a teenager, you know, my, my dad wasn't around. I quit school, you know, smoked weed and people thought I was a drug addict. In the 80s they wanted me to go to rehab. My girlfriend broke up with me because I wasn't good enough for her and her family and all these things just fueled my fire to prove everyone wrong, and I think you know a little bit of a chip on your shoulder can go a long way.

Speaker 1: 30:36

Yeah, yeah, I love that you said that because I think that if you look at many of our entrepreneurs the real, truly great ones they've they had some real kicks in the face at a young age. And I'm not sure if to have the kind of drive it takes to build empires, that you can do that without some chip, something I think it.

Speaker 2: 30:59

Yeah, I think all all very successful people want to prove the world wrong to certain I that's my theory at least you know, if you really dig a little deeper, you're going to find that source, you know um.

Speaker 2: 31:13

So you know, leverage that, leverage that. You know that's the mindset. I mean you're either going to be defined by your past or not. You know you're gonna. You're gonna seek a better future or you're gonna be kind of stuck in who you are. That's a mindset, yeah, yeah, you talked about in the beginning. Uh, to wrap up our episode, you talked about kind of stuck in who you are.

Speaker 1: 31:34

That's a mindset, yeah. Yeah you talked about in the beginning to wrap up our episode. You talked about the importance of mental, physical, emotional, spiritual health wellness across the board. Can you share a little bit on that? I know it's important to your wife and you both the whole wellness aspect.

Speaker 2: 31:56

You know I think I neglected. I didn't have major mental health issues, but I neglected some of that growth in my youth because I was so focused on work and you know it wasn't the same. Now we talk about it more openly. We were lucky that health was was really important part of our life before. Before it was a popular thing.

Speaker 2: 32:19

You know, as I said, we were going to health food stores and treating ourselves naturally, our ailments, we were eating very organic food at home and um, and the luck in that for us was that we transitioned that to our business and we became purpose-driven brands before that became a term right and to the point where we didn't even promote it as a, as something we we didn't tell our customers we use natural ingredients. We just knew that it would deliver the better benefit to them. You know we dealt with middle-aged, affluent male consumers. You know they didn't care that we put natural you know, lavender essential oil in our shaving cream. We cared about that and it became our magic sauce, if you will, and we were one of the pioneers of clean beauty back in the nineties, if you will, and we were one of the pioneers of clean beauty back in the 90s.

Speaker 2: 33:20

So you know in hindsight, learning from my experience, what can I teach? You know, the next generation of entrepreneurs is really focus on being, you know, as strong mentally, as strong emotionally and as strong physically as you can be when you're going up against these challenges. I mean you're just going to be able to perform at a higher level and your chances of success are going to be enhanced. So, for me, mental, physical and emotional health are not something you do outside of work. It is part of your entrepreneurial strategy to succeed.

Speaker 1: 33:57

Yeah, yeah, I love that. For those of you listeners who are familiar with my work, I teach raising consciousness. It's the mission of everything that I do and in your entrepreneurial journey, you can choose to rest in fear, which is at the bottom of the human consciousness scale. It's that survival mode and it's going to be very hard to build your business if you're living in survival mode. If you focus on the practices that Eric's talking about, which is mental and emotional and I would add, spiritual, which is really what we're talking about across the board. It's not about religion, it's about the practices that keep you in high energy, high vibrational status, because energy is everything. If you have a good schedule and practice healthy practices like meditation and being aware of your mental and emotional state, and all of that, it's going to keep you in a higher vibration and the higher vibration is going to draw more success to you. Would you agree with that statement, eric? Yeah, I'll give you an example that happened to me in recent in last 12 months.

Speaker 2: 35:09

I've always meditated a bit here and there. You know guided meditation. It was always great. But I really committed to uh, being certified as a transcendental meditation student in july of 23. I started meditating 20 minutes a day religiously and I've been wanting to write a book for 10 years. And I've been wanting to write a book for 10 years. Within months of meditating daily, the creativity, understanding what this book was going to be about, and just the flow. I'm using my hands, but it felt like transcendent. I wrote the book in three weeks and the creativity and the flow and I can only attribute that to opening new pathways through meditation. I mean it's been a game changer for me. It's silly, you know. You sit on the chair and try to think about nothing but your mantra for 20 minutes and your life changes. How does that work? I don't understand. Just keep doing it.

Speaker 1: 36:12

Yeah, I really think it's about our. I think it's about our vibrational frequency. You know the. It's like we're sending a signal out into the universe that we are prepared for more and we're receptive.

Speaker 2: 36:25

Yeah, I agree, and I I I'm a big fan of manifestation. I mean writing down their goals. I've experienced that so many times in my life. I do it religiously again and it just works for me At least it works.

Speaker 1: 36:40

Not that.

Speaker 2: 36:40

I'm, you know, praying for something to happen, but I try to be mindful about what I want in this world, what I want to attract, what I want to keep away. So it's a very important thing, and nowadays it's more available, it's more talked about and it's accessible, and I do believe it is part of your business plan as an entrepreneur.

Speaker 1: 37:11

Yes, I agree with that. So well said, eric. Thank you so much for joining us. If people wanted to find out more about you or find your book, uh, you know that kind of thing where would you send folks? Uh?

Speaker 2: 37:24

the easiest to remember ericmalkincom. We'll get you there, you can. You can find awesome awesome.

Speaker 1: 37:32

Oh, I could have kept talking about entrepreneurship and, uh and wellness. Uh, thank you so much to our listeners. Uh, citizen journalists. If you are not subscribed, what are you thinking it's intelligent listening that you can uh uh, enjoy while you do all manner of other things? Um, uh, let me grab a couple of my books really quick.

Speaker 1: 37:52

Uh, if you are not familiar with my work, if you're new to Citizen Journalist, go to shamanisiscom. You will find all of my books there Memory Mansion, which was my first bestseller, and A New American Dream, conscious AI for a Future Full of Promise, as well as my spiritual practices in Unleash the Empress and Unleash the Empress. That's shamanicistcom. And if you want to learn about the foundation that I started to teach AI skills and literacy to underserved communities, visit soultechfoundationorg and you can learn more there. You can also support us through our fundraiser on Butter, our AI teacher course is ready six months early, which means that suddenly we went from having something that was about to happen to having something happen now. We need your support, so go check it out. And thank you again, eric, for joining us. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 38:40

Thank you, I enjoyed the conversation.

Speaker 1: 38:42

Awesome. You guys have an amazing week and we'll be back soon enough with more Bye. Awesome. Thank you, eric, that was great.