“Welcome to heaven. Population: everyone.” 
– Aubrey Marcus

Aubrey Marcus (IG: @aubreymarcus) is the founder and CEO of Onnit, a lifestyle brand based on a holistic health philosophy he calls Total Human Optimization. Onnit is an Inc. 500 company and an industry leader with products touching millions of lives, including many top professional athletes around the world.

Aubrey currently hosts The Aubrey Marcus Podcast, a motivational destination for conversations with the brightest minds in athletics, business, science, relationships and spirituality with over 10 million downloads on iTunes. Aubrey regularly provides commentary to outlets like Entrepreneur, Forbes, The Doctors, and The Joe Rogan Experience.

He has been featured on the cover of Men’s Health, and his newest (and first!) book is Own The Day, Own Your Life from HarperCollins. Enjoy!

Want to hear another episode about spirituality, happiness, and mindfulness? — Listen to this episode with Sharon Salzberg (stream below or right-click here to download):

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QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Selected Links from the Episode

• Connect with Aubrey Marcus:

Website | Podcast | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

• Own the Day, Own Your Life: Optimized Practices for Waking, Working, Learning, Eating, Training, Playing, Sleeping, and Sex by Aubrey Marcus
• Onnit
• Ecstacy dance playlist
• What Is a Vision Quest and Why Do One? by Maddisen K. Krown, HuffPost
• The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide — Risks, Micro-Dosing, Ibogaine, and More
• Onnit Alpha Brain
• Bulletproof Coffee
• The Joe Rogan Experience
• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
• Moby Dick by Herman Melville
• Books by Carlos Castaneda
• The Toltec Art of Life and Death: Living Your Life as a Work of Art by Don Miguel Ruiz and Barbara Emrys
• The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz
• The Mastery of Love: A Practical Guide to the Art of Relationship by Don Miguel Ruiz
• Island by Aldous Huxley
• Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha
• Aubrey Marcus Gets Real about His Open Relationship by Ashley Uzer, Galore
• Sam Harris’ Waking Up App
• The Healing Practice of Ecstatic Dance by Ian Faulkner, Elephant Journal
• Grof’s Basic Perinatal Matrices
• Music by Lindsey Stirling
• Beats Antique
• A Tribe Called Red
• Porangui
• Sleep: The Myth of 8 Hours, the Power of Naps, and the New Plan to Recharge Your Body and Mind by Nick Littlehales

Show Notes

• Is Austin past its prime or just getting better? [06:57]
• When was the last time Aubrey cried tears of joy? [09:02]
• How did a vision quest help Aubrey shift gears and stop being miserable? [12:09]
• If Aubrey someday has kids, would he encourage a similar rite of passage for them? [17:19]
• Which element does Aubrey feel contributed most heavily to his vision quest experience: psychedelics, ceremony, or guidance? [18:41]
• When he was younger, what did Aubrey want to be when he grew up? [20:38]
• What projects did Aubrey try that didn’t quite work out? [21:25]
• What is Onnit, and what about it is Aubrey most proud of? [23:10]
• How many people does Onnit now employ, and how much has the company grown since it started in 2010? [24:39]
• Aubrey talks about the complicated relationship with his father and how it affected his relationships with others. [26:53]
• Learning what causes our own trauma allows us to help others overcome theirs. [34:24]
• When was the first time Aubrey felt successful? [37:13]
• How did Aubrey become business partners with Joe Rogan? [40:46]
• Influential books. [47:55]
• Aubrey’s guidelines for exploring open relationships. [52:40]
• Failures that set the stage for later success. [54:20]
• What’s Aubrey’s pattern interrupt for anger management? [56:40]
• What would Aubrey’s billboard say? [1:01:27]
• Tools for a more fulfilling life. [1:02:44]
• The music Aubrey uses for ecstatic dance. [1:07:10]
• On getting comfortable with discomfort. [1:13:05]
• Aubrey gives us a preview of what we can expect from his book Own the Day, Own Your Life. [1:13:59]
• What advice would Aubrey give his younger self? [1:18:08]
• Parting thoughts and a term of cannibal affection. [1:21:00]

People Mentioned

Posted on: March 12, 2018.

Please check out Tribe of Mentors, my newest book, which shares short, tactical life advice from 100+ world-class performers. Many of the world's most famous entrepreneurs, athletes, investors, poker players, and artists are part of the book. The tips and strategies in Tribe of Mentors have already changed my life, and I hope the same for you. Click here for a sample chapter and full details. Roughly 90% of the guests have never appeared on my podcast.

Who was interviewed? Here's a very partial list: tech icons (founders of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Craigslist, Pinterest, Spotify, Salesforce, Dropbox, and more), Jimmy Fallon, Arianna Huffington, Brandon Stanton (Humans of New York), Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Ben Stiller, Maurice Ashley (first African-American Grandmaster of chess), Brené Brown (researcher and bestselling author), Rick Rubin (legendary music producer), Temple Grandin (animal behavior expert and autism activist), Franklin Leonard (The Black List), Dara Torres (12-time Olympic medalist in swimming), David Lynch (director), Kelly Slater (surfing legend), Bozoma Saint John (Beats/Apple/Uber), Lewis Cantley (famed cancer researcher), Maria Sharapova, Chris Anderson (curator of TED), Terry Crews, Greg Norman (golf icon), Vitalik Buterin (creator of Ethereum), and nearly 100 more. Check it all out by clicking here.