Mushrooms, Meditation, and Making Millions: My Unconventional Path to Better Business Decisions

Mushrooms, Meditation, and Making Millions: My Unconventional Path to Better Business Decisions

The Transition Nobody Expected

My background: 7th of 9 kids. Single mom. Mormon upbringing. Door-to-door sales from age 16. The most structured, disciplined, goal-oriented path you can imagine.

My present: meditation. Buddhist philosophy. Sam Harris lectures. Prescribed ketamine for mental health. Psilocybin experiences that changed how I think about everything.

The journey between those two points taught me more about business than any sales training, MBA program, or industry conference ever could.

From Logic-Only to Emotional Awareness

For the first decade of my career, I operated on pure logic. Feelings were inefficient. Emotions were for people who couldn't close. Every decision was a calculation: revenue impact, probability of success, risk-reward ratio.

It worked. Financially, it worked great. I made $250K at 23. I built and sold a franchise empire. By every external measure, the logical approach was winning.

But internally, I was a mess. Anxious. Constantly thinking. Unable to enjoy the success I'd worked so hard to achieve. The logical mind had delivered results but not satisfaction.

Therapy was the first crack in the armor. My therapist introduced a radical concept: you have feelings, and they're not optional. Ignoring them doesn't make them go away — it makes them control you from underneath. Every "logical" decision I'd made was actually influenced by emotions I refused to acknowledge.

Eastern Philosophy Meets Franchise Brokerage

I started reading. Sam Harris on consciousness. Buddhist texts on attachment and suffering. Alan Watts on the illusion of control.

The principle that changed everything: "All desire is the root of suffering."

Applied to business: every goal I set was an arbitrary number I'd invented, then tortured myself trying to hit. $100K. $500K. $1M. Each one was supposed to deliver a feeling — security, success, freedom. None of them did. Because the feeling wasn't in the number.

So I did something unconventional: I wrote a mission statement based on an emotional state, not a financial target.

"Freedom from constant thought to live a life of ease and gratitude."

This became the filter for every business decision. Does this partnership move me toward ease and gratitude? Does this hire? Does this client? Does this meeting? If not — even if the money is good — the answer is no.

How Detachment from Outcomes Improves Sales

This sounds counterintuitive, but it's the most practically useful thing I've learned: when you don't care if they buy, they buy more.

At Franchise KI, I tell our sales team: "Don't give a f*ck if they buy or not." Not because we don't want the sale — because we want the right sale. When our reps are calm, relaxed, and genuinely focused on helping (not closing), prospects feel it. They trust more. They open up more. They make better decisions.

We close at roughly 2x the industry rate. Not because of scripts or funnels or marketing spend. Because our team is not stressed. Calm sells. Stressed repels.

The Tools Nobody Talks About in Business

Meditation

I'm not a 4 AM meditator who sits in silence for an hour. I'm a "whenever I notice I'm spiraling" meditator who takes 5 minutes to breathe and reset. The goal isn't enlightenment — it's awareness. Noticing when my mind is running a story that isn't useful, and choosing to stop.

Prescribed Psychedelics

I use prescribed ketamine for mental health. I've had psilocybin experiences in controlled settings. These aren't party drugs — they're tools for breaking thought patterns that no amount of talk therapy could touch.

After certain experiences, I made better decisions. Not because I saw visions or had revelations — because the rigid thought patterns loosened. I could see options I'd been blind to. I could feel compassion for team members I'd been frustrated with. I could hold contradictions without needing to resolve them.

I'm not advocating for everyone to do psychedelics. I'm saying: the tools that made me a better business leader are not in any business book. They're in philosophy, therapy, and consciousness exploration.

The "Joy Check"

Before any meeting, project, or commitment, I ask: "Does this bring me closer to joy?" Not pleasure — joy. Pleasure is short-term and often borrowed from the future. Joy is sustained and generative.

This filter has eliminated 90% of the projects I would have said yes to five years ago. The remaining 10%? They're the ones that actually matter. And they perform better because I'm fully engaged, not going through the motions.

Why the Calmest Person Closes the Deal

In franchising, both sides of the table are nervous. The buyer is considering their life savings. The franchisor's rep has a quota. Both parties are in their heads, running anxiety scripts.

The person who can be present — actually listening, actually engaged, not performing — wins every time. Not because they're more persuasive. Because they're more trustworthy.

When I sit with a prospective franchise buyer and tell them "I genuinely don't care if you buy through us or not — I just want you to make the right decision," they believe me. Because it's true. And that truth, paradoxically, is the most effective sales strategy I've ever deployed.

Bringing It Together

The Mormon kid who knocked doors for 16 hours a day and the meditation practitioner who works 30 hours a week are the same person. The difference is awareness.

I still set big goals. I still push for them. But I'll never work late to hit a number on one day versus the next. Because the number is arbitrary. The emotional state I'm optimizing for — ease, gratitude, presence — is not.

If you're an entrepreneur running on fumes, chasing a number that keeps moving, burning relationships to build a business — I've been there. It ends badly. And there's a better way.

Start with the question: "What feeling am I actually chasing?" Then design your business to deliver it.

At Franchise KI, that's not just how I run my company. It's how I help our clients choose their franchises. Let's find one that gives you what you actually want.