From Monk to Entrepreneur + Resiliency with Madhu Das (part 1)

Ever wonder how a former monk can become a successful holistic health and business lifestyle coach? Join us as we chat with Madhu, who made the bold choice at 18 to embrace a life of celibacy and philosophical exploration in India. His journey is nothing short of transformative. Madhu's unique experiences navigating the spiritual and business worlds reveal profound insights into achieving a fulfilling life. We highlight his remarkable transition from financial struggle to founding a marketing agency that empowers wellness coaches, and how launching retreats in India proved pivotal for both his personal growth and community impact.

Madhu opens up about overcoming imposter syndrome and the liberating power of authenticity. From channeling wisdom rather than claiming it to learning resilience in the face of life's uncertainties, his story encourages us to redefine success on our own terms. Discover how self-discovery through spiritual pilgrimages can unlock entrepreneurial potential and silence that pesky internal critic we affectionately call "Dr Evil Porkchop." Tune in for an inspiring conversation on finding purpose, contributing to the world, and reigniting resilience in every aspect of life.

About Madhu Das
Instagram.  https://www.instagram.com/madhu.life/
Facebook.   https://www.facebook.com/arjuna.gallelli/
LinkedIn.   https://www.linkedin.com/in/madhuri-pura-dasa-35930894/
YouTube.    https://www.youtube.com/@Madhulife/

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Chapters

• 0:06 Reignite Resilience With Madhu
• 10:45 Transforming Holistic Practices Into Successful Business
• 17:51 Unlocking Entrepreneurial Success Through Self-Discovery

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

All of us reach a point in time where we are depleted and need to somehow find a way to reignite the fire within. But how do we spark that flame? Welcome to Reignite Resilience, where we will venture into the heart of the human spirit. Resilience where we will venture into the heart of the human spirit. We'll discuss the art of reigniting our passion and strategies to stoke our enthusiasm. And now here are your hosts, natalie Davis and Pamela Cass.

Natalie Davis: 0:41

Welcome back to another episode of Reignite Resilience. I am your co-host, Natalie Davis, and I am so excited and honored to be back with all of you today, and joining me is Pam Kass Pam how are you?

Pamela Cass: 0:54

I am fabulous. It is a absolutely perfect fall day. It's 71 degrees, it is a clear blue sky, the trees are gorgeous, so I'm kind of in a happy space right now and I secretly want this to stay like this until spring. Yes, I agree Not just put that into the universe and maybe we could just skip winter this year. I'd be okay with that.

Natalie Davis: 1:13

If we all will it together, that would be lovely.

Pamela Cass: 1:16

Exactly, we'll make it happen. We'll make it happen. I can't handle the snow.

Natalie Davis: 1:20

Well, here's the thing. I don't know if I want to have a conversation with Mother Nature. She doesn't really tend to like the discussion.

Pamela Cass: 1:28

That is true, that is true. I will just let her do her thing.

Natalie Davis: 1:31

Exactly. It's like you do your thing, mother Nature, oh my goodness. But it is a beautiful day here in Colorado and we have a fabulous guest that is joining us today, so why don't you tell our listeners who's joining us?

Pamela Cass: 1:45

Absolutely. I'm so excited about this guest. Of course, I'm excited about every guest, because every one of the guests that we've had have just such unique stories, and so I cannot wait to dig into this one. So today joining us is Madhu. He is formerly a monk, is a holistic health and business lifestyle coach who has retained hundreds of health and wellness professionals, coaches and influencers in ancient science and helps them create six and seven figure online businesses. He lived and trained for half a decade as a monk in the yoga tradition. During these, he traveled extensively studying Vedic arts and sciences under renowned teachers. In his free time, he is a professional musician who tours internationally. I got to listen to a little bit of the music this morning, and so I am so excited to have you here and I'm going to hand it off to you for you to kind of share your story.

Madhu Das: 2:45

Well, first, I'm going to hand it off to you for you to kind of share your story. Well, first, I'm so grateful for this opportunity to connect with you both, because it's quite the labor of love to keep something magical like a podcast like this going, and I speak on behalf of all of the listeners listening to these words that we're so grateful for the effort you put to keep this. Yeah, magic is a good word, magic going on as far as what we share. So, yeah, I did what most 18-year-olds do and shave their head and become celibate and move to India.

Pamela Cass: 3:14

Okay, I'll tell my 18-year-olds.

Madhu Das: 3:19

Yeah, very strange trajectory. But I had read too much philosophy and I was getting too disgusted with certain direction I was moving in life just being a teenager the partying, I mean, anyways, long list that we are all familiar with. It isn't very let's call it tasteful as the brain starts to mature. And I saw an alternative, and that was that I could spend a few years learning actually how to become sense, controlled and control my mind. So it doesn't just control man. As we often say, you can either be your mind's boss or be your mind's. There's another word that starts with a, b, but I won't say it.

Natalie Davis: 3:53

Yeah, you all fill in the blank. We know it yes and you were sick of being the latter, so you decided to be the boss.

Madhu Das: 4:03

Yeah, yeah, because it's a choice, and oftentimes it's a choice and oftentimes there's a way which we just feel impelled to have to move forward in whatever direction we think we should be, as opposed to taking a moment to say what do I actually want to do with my life? What am I here to contribute with my unique psychophysical nature and gifts? How can I actually be a contributor in this world? Because the be a contributor in this world because the mind works in a way of I can either give or it takes, and taking doesn't ever rehab. Everyone knows that you get the thing you think will make you happy and you go wait, I'm still as unhappy. I just have the thing now. And so how do we actually find that deep inner satisfaction and peace and purpose in life? And that's what, let's say, excited me on my 18th birthday to become a monk and delve into that space.

Pamela Cass: 4:45

Now, where were you living when you were 18, when you made this decision?

Madhu Das: 4:49

So I was at home with mom and dad and quite spoiled. I mean very simple, very simple life. But you know, mom cooked, did laundry I didn't realize just how much it. Well, fortunately, being a monk, you just have two pairs of robes, you wash every day, it works out. But yeah, and a monk, you just have two pairs of robes, you wash everything, it works out. Yeah, and a very, very humble but simple life and no intention to leave. I thought I'll live with my parents forever. This makes so much sense, like you know. Free rent this is great. But you know, there's a way in which the calling was just too strong and so, from there, that's when I would spend six months in India and then the other six months in monasteries in the West, primarily for visa purposes. After 180 days it kicked me out, you got to get out, kid, and I did that for about a half a decade.

Pamela Cass: 5:32

Okay, wow, what was the biggest challenge that you faced when you went from living at home with mom and dad meals cooked, laundry done and then now you find yourself in India, and what was the biggest surprise or the biggest challenge you faced?

Madhu Das: 5:49

It was almost all exclusively mental, and that means that it actually doesn't take much for a human to live, get a little place to lay down a little grub, a couple of social connections. It actually doesn't take much for the human to survive not necessarily thrive, but survive. And so most of the challenges were all up here, and that was really switching the script from what can you do for me to what can I do for you. And that concept which we call a service attitude, which, according to all the ancient yoga literatures, the Vedic texts, these kind of we call them the wisdom literatures from the East they all talk about contribution means happiness.

Madhu Das: 6:26

To the extent that we become of service, we give, we give, we just provide value. That's where happiness comes. To the extent that we try to accumulate, take, get the shiniest thing, that's not necessarily to make us happy. You can also do those, but they're mutually exclusive. You could also be of service, be happy and have the the shiny, cool stuff as well, but not with the misunderstanding that that's the thing that will provide contentment okay.

Pamela Cass: 6:49

So when you decided to walk away from that, what made you decide to walk away and then what kind of led you to where you're at today?

Madhu Das: 6:57

yeah. So after five years the way it works is it was kind of like uh, in the west it's like five years you get a master's degree. And it wasn't exactly. You get a master's degree in monkhood, but 90% of monks are student monks and we call them the one percenters. We'll go on to be lifelong celibate monks. And we jokingly say you have to be really pure or really weird to go down that route. And I wasn't weird enough, pure enough. No, I say that jestingly. But after a few years, you know, under the guidance of your teachers, it gets to a point where you're like okay, you're good, do you want to reintegrate this back into quote unquote normal life now? Because the whole purpose of learning that as a student monk is how to take these principles and bring them into this world, to again be a contributor towards society instead of a taker from society. And so after several years, teachers are kind of like you want it? And I was like, yeah, I think it's.

Natalie Davis: 7:48

You know, sleeping on the ground is nice and all, but I think I'm ready for hair Priorities, priorities.

Madhu Das: 7:52

Exactly.

Natalie Davis: 7:53

Yes, Well, and so you had all of these years of basically being poured into and having this service not even attitude, but lifestyle, so coming and approaching everything from a place of service and so were you able to have connection and a sense of community outside of your teachers right, those people that were pouring into you but were you able to have a sense of community as well while you were there?

Madhu Das: 8:18

Yeah, absolutely. And so sometimes there's this concept of monks, and this is how, this is how Hollywood does it. It's like a monk means you're kind of in the middle of nowhere in the forest and you don't see anyone. There are certainly monks like that, but we're social mammals and therefore good luck. You want to be alone? Good luck. It's an easy way to just become very miserable in life. Even if we're surrounded by people, we feel alone. It still causes negative emotions and experiences. So certainly we must be surrounded by what we might call like-minded association. Those who are of a similar modern vernacular say vibe, but those you vibe with and and You'd be surrounded by, not just you know, say teachers and upline if you want, but also we call it like a spiritual frat house being in a monastery with a bunch of other monks.

Natalie Davis: 9:05

I've never heard that before, but that definitely puts a different spin on it for me, right, different visual.

Madhu Das: 9:11

Yeah, right, you can see it's fun. It's fun when you're in that vibe, but then every day. So everyone's engaged according to their nature, which means, you know, some people like to cook. They spend time cooking not only just for everyone in the temple but also, you know, we give lots and lots of food for charitable events and whatnot. Some people, like I, like to teach. For instance, I always have a. This thing just goes, this mouth of mine. It's better for worse, it just goes, and so better to fill it up with something decent worth saying. And so we would go to universities and teach the basic concepts of yoga and meditation and, ultimately, how to control the mind so it doesn't control you. And so everyone's engaged accordingly. So certainly that integration introverts. They like to. They stay back. Maybe a little less integration, but most of us, yeah, there's a way in which, in order to really live a full life, you must have like-minded connection certainly.

Natalie Davis: 10:01

Yeah, fabulous. Well, talk to us a little bit about your reintroduction after you wrapped up your experience, because that was a journey in itself and you were basically charged with now take this out into the world and continue to make a difference. So talk to us a little bit about that transition.

Madhu Das: 10:20

Yeah, well, the interesting thing. So after graduation, I'm grateful to say you get a lot of support from the community. It's kind of like it's not like good luck, no more orange road for you, pal. It's more like, hey, good, you've done the hard work, now let's integrate. And so there is a certain levels of support. So it's not like you're on your own and in some of my case there was no shortage of places I could say go, or I could still even stay in some ashram-like experiences.

Madhu Das: 10:45

But for me it was really important to. I do well with immersive experiences, just the way my mind works. And so I was like all right, let's do this. How am I going to support myself? And ultimately I was keen to find a way to support myself via the methodologies that I had learned and how to actually improve people's quality of life and make money doing that, especially because a lot of people say you can't do that. Especially it's cliche in the spiritual communities, like, oh, you got to work to make a job and then do your passion on the side. And I was like, uh-uh, that's no thing. I mean not that there's a problem, People want to do that by all means, but it's not that you have to do that, and so I definitely didn't want to do that.

Natalie Davis: 11:28

I didn't want to nothing about me, says normal job, and I think you guys can't tell.

Madhu Das: 11:30

And so I was like, how can I? And so I was like, how can I do this in a way that's sustainable? And I mean don't get me wrong it took me about two years of making far below the poverty line to actually figure out how to do it making $15,000 a year for the first two years outside of after graduating the monastery, but eventually being diligent and ultimately that means finding people who do the thing you want to do and saying how may I serve? Please give me, give me some knowledge, what can I do in reciprocation for the knowledge and by getting the fortune of amazing mentors allowing me to actually build a business that supports me in holistic practices, providing mindset support. And nowadays it's transformed all the way into we have a marketing agency because I grew my holistic business so I'm grateful to say, through the guidance of my teachers who grew it so successful that all my other friends who are providing holistic services were like, hey, I'm broke, help. And I wound up spending so much time helping them and I was like, all right, let's just, let's say, one wellness coach that I can support will go help 50 more people and therefore, by you know, let's say, I've got 50 something clients today and therefore each of those 50 something they're now helping 50 plus as well. In this way it's more exponential. So that's how it evolved from making no money, doing what I love, still being happy, but not having money, which doesn't.

Madhu Das: 12:45

It's tough, it doesn't work very well to figure out how to make a successful, lucrative business, and then now I'm grateful to get to share that with others. Teach others.

Pamela Cass: 12:53

Yeah, and I saw on your website you have retreats that you do and I was kind of going down the different places that you do those retreats. So did you start with retreats? Was this something that you've newly added and tell us about? What does that look like?

Madhu Das: 14:02

I got really sick and tired about, yeah, about two years after I graduated the monastery, I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. You know, I was happy and I was feeling quite fulfilled because what we learn it's not necessarily to my credit, my only credit is just trying to share what I've learned but what we learn is so beneficial for people, it's so viscerally and practically helpful in people's life. And so there was a lack of integrity because I was doing it but I was exhausting myself and I wasn't able to afford just the necessities of life. So I got sick and tired and I was like, okay, how are the people who don't have like? I mean, I say it's kind of a joke, but it's like people who don't like know anything are making a bunch of money, like there's clearly something I just don't know, there's just not. It's not like I'm at a disadvantage, I'm not a victim here Bigger topic but no one's ever actually a victim in an ultimate sense. We can explore it later. But I'm not a victim to my circumstances, my experience, I'm in control of my life. That means I get to do what it takes to make this results the reality.

Madhu Das: 15:03

And so I said what could I do to make a little bit of money? Because, keep in mind, I'd made a little over $15,000 prior 12 months and that was working hard. And I was like, what could I do? And because I'd lived in India, I knew it quite well, I traveled extensively. So I thought, okay, I know people who run India pilgrimages. What if I launch something and do an India pilgrimage?

Madhu Das: 15:25

And I was so freaking scared I was like, no, this is going to fail, I'm going to get rejected. No one's going to sign up, it's not going to make any money, and when the bar's on the ground it ain't going any lower, yeah, yeah. And so I was like, all right, let's just try it. And I launched it and I'm grateful to say it sold out quite quickly. And so for the first time in my life, I had made more in two weeks of work the two week pilgrimage than I had almost for the prior two years combined 20 something thousand dollars for two weeks of work, which it sold out, and people were stoked about it. And then that's when something changed where I went oh okay, that's right, I'm the captain of the ship. Here I get to create my future, my reality, instead of just wallowing, why me Mental blocks might be there.

Pamela Cass: 16:11

Yeah, okay. What does a twoweek pilgrimage look like?

Madhu Das: 16:16

Sure, yeah. So we go to India. We call it pilgrimage. We also do retreats in, like Greece and Bali, other places which are a little bit more like a yoga retreat, holistic, but when we go to India it's very pilgrimage because it's such a spiritual land and instead of going there to try to just enjoy even though we go to quite enjoyable places we call it pilgrimages.

Madhu Das: 16:37

To really focus in like this is a spiritual experience for people to go inward and really become, reflect and really become in tune with their inner purpose and Sanskrit's called dharma, or their intrinsic purpose in life. And so, you know, every morning we start with meditation, we do some yoga. When we say yoga, I mean say like the calisthenic gymnastic workout that usually people connect the word yoga with. There's also internal yoga, of course, meditation. Then we read from ancient literatures from the East, have a wonderful breakfast, and then we do something amazing that day, and that's everything from go to the top of the Himalayan mountains to, you know, sometimes we're at eco villages and we spend time, we do some cow therapy to some workshops.

Madhu Das: 17:15

I mean it's just a whole span of amazing things that we do go out and see ancient temples that have been there for at least a few thousand years and, you know, really get a spiritual experience, come back, have another evening connection doing some meditation together and it's really meant to help us understand who we really are and like our again, that inner purpose, that inner way we can serve and be of contribution to provide happiness in our life and mind. And how to connect with cool folks. Because if you want to become good at something, just find a bunch of people doing the thing. Because if you want to become good at something, just find a bunch of people doing the thing and as if magically you become that the thing.

Pamela Cass: 17:48

Yeah, oh my gosh.

Natalie Davis: 17:50

That's huge and I think you shared. When you came back and you doubled your income, or even the combo, for the last two years, you were able to see the traction and you were experiencing it in that the traction and you were experiencing it in that. But the two weeks that you were on the pilgrimage did that imposter syndrome voice still continue to pop up? Because before going on the pilgrimage, you still felt what am I doing here? I am going to tell people to attain this life of their dreams and I, as you mentioned, the bar is on the ground for me, so I'm going to guide and lead these folks. The bar is on the ground for me, so I'm going to guide and lead these folks. Where was that click for you? Was it on the pilgrimage itself or was it truly?

Madhu Das: 18:32

after you came back and the checks cleared. Yeah, it was somewhat of an incremental. So the first step for me is when it sold out with practically no effort. I mean I was like, oh, I don't market it, but it's just as, if you know, mystically sold out. And that was the first step where I went, oh, my God, okay, I'm the only thing soft myself. I'm just, in this analysis, paralysis of what if, after what if, that's you know, and the only reason I'm not doing what I want in life is me. It's because I'm not making the decisions to actually do the things I want to be doing. And then the next level was actually being there, and in the beginning it's scary. I'm like, oh, what do I know? I don't know anything.

Madhu Das: 19:08

As I was seeing people's experience, I was then reminded of the training I received, which is we're all vessels, we're instruments of service. There's a concept like I'm a healer and it's like, no, no, I'm just a little living entity with some little gifts, but there's only so much I can do. But when I tap into, let's say, the empowerment that's available through, say, the teachers, we like to say stand on the shoulders of giants. It's like you connect with those who have great messages. You connect to divinity within and you channel that. And in this way, when I, let's say, came back in touch with this concept that I trained years of, like I'm a vessel of service, I'm not the doer, I'm not the special. I'm special only to the extent that I allow myself to channel that and just be an instrument. And in that kind of a snap of like snapping out of, oh yeah, that's right, this is something I'm here to do, to serve and to help others. That's really where that relief came from.

Madhu Das: 20:08

And because you can only feel like an imposter if you think that you're the ultimate doer in this situation. If you're, you know I'm the man. I got the answer and I was like, yeah, good luck, see how long that lasts? For, yeah, not only is it arrogant, but it's unsustainable. And so in this way, slowly, over time, there's a way in which it's like, that's right, I'm simply here to just give back the amazing gifts my teachers have given to me and to the extent that I can just channel that, there is no quote, unquote imposter. And I also even still to this day, when those thoughts come up and people ask all the time how do I overcome imposter syndrome. It's like we always say just be honest and don't tell people what they will do. Just say this is what I did. Try the same thing, see if we get the same result, because in this way you can't be an imposter. You're just talking about what's worked factually. I love it.

Natalie Davis: 20:58

That's awesome. That's that voice in the back of your head, in the back of all of our heads. We have nicknamed that voice Dr Evil Porkchop.

Pamela Cass: 21:06

Dr Evil Porkchop.

Natalie Davis: 21:07

Just Dr Evil Porkchop on the show. So we like to silence that voice sometimes because it tells us the things that we don't want to be friends with that person anyway. They do not have our best interest at heart.

Pamela Cass: 21:19

I love it. I love it.

Natalie Davis: 21:21

So, coming out of graduation, you decide the best thing for you to do is step into the space of entrepreneurship, host a pilgrimage after a couple of years. I mean the only career and profession out there that does not have a playbook or steps to success that are repeatable. So here you are in this space and you come back and it clicks for you. Then what happened? At that point that you realized this is what I'm here to do.

Madhu Das: 21:55

Yeah, you can't unknow knowledge, you know once you hear it. You can't unhear it. What do they say? Can't unring that bell. There's a way in which I then was faced with the reality of oh yeah, that's right, I am in control of my life and blaming someone, it's not even real. What to speak of. It don't help, that's for sure.

Madhu Das: 22:09

And so when I came back from the pilgrimage, everything was kind of. There were a lot of circumstances that were, let's just call it, precarious, that were changed, like the place I was staying at the time. They were pretty much like, hey, this place you get renovated. I was literally staying in what we called the dungeon. At this time I was with my girlfriend, who's now my wife. We've been together eight years now and where we were staying we called it the dungeon because it was like a ground level, tiny little place, and I'm not going to go into details. But they were like, yeah, you can't stay there anymore, it needs renovations, it's not even like healthy to live in. So I was like, where are we going to go? Where are we going to live?

Madhu Das: 22:43

And and she was also in college, getting her degree in culinary arts and nutrition. So she graduated young, at 16. So she's she's young, I'm young. We're like what the heck are we doing here? And so there's all these precarious elements and that kind of pushed me in the trajectory of having to figure it out. And now I knew it's possible. Now I know, okay, I have to be the one that decides. So I went all in and I said, like, what is it that I really want to do and how can I charge for it? And don't get me wrong, it's not as easy as just maybe, how I said, it Took a great deal of education, support, just ultimately, knowledge gathering, but then eventually saying, all right, I'm going to do this.

Madhu Das: 23:20

And I was grateful that as soon as I created my online, we and I was grateful that as soon as I created my online, we could call it a wellness business. Really, it was based around meditation and one of the expertises I had is a monk called Ayurveda. It's ancient holistic healing arts Similar to traditional Chinese medicine, just very similar, but the Indian version of it, if you will. So I was offering these services and I was like, okay, I'm going to charge. What if I just pick big numbers? And big at the time was like what if I charge someone $4,000 to work with me for six months. Like I was like, what's, let me just reach as high as I could. Keep in mind we're talking about someone who's made a quarter that less than three times that a year and I was like let's just go crazy, let's just try it. And so I did it. And the first two people were like absolutely, when we get started. And I was like what the heck is going on here?

Natalie Davis: 24:06

And in this way that means that you're not charging enough. That's what that meant.

Madhu Das: 24:10

That's true, yes, and my prices definitely have changed since then. But yeah, and in this way I was like, okay, this is an option, and again I'm the only one getting in my way. And that's when I started spending a lot of time, energy resources, money, studying business, finance, sales, marketing and then doing what we call the conscious version of it.

Natalie Davis: 24:30

We hope that you've enjoyed part one of our two-part interview with Madhu, hearing his raw experience of learning how to get out of his own way. We hope that you come back for part two, where we're going to continue to hear more about Madhu's, about what excites you, about what excites you, tips that will help you in not only identifying your purpose but living that fulfilled lifestyle that we all talk about. We'll see you soon.

Speaker 1: 24:53

Thank you for joining us today on the Reignite Resilience podcast. We hope you had some aha moments and learned a few new real life ideas. To fuel the flames of passion, please subscribe on your favorite streaming platform, like or download your favorite episodes and, of course, share with your friends and family. We look forward to seeing you again next time on Reignite Resilience.