On today’s episode, we sit down with entrepreneur and wellness expert Myk Likhov. Myk is on a mission to raise the vibration of this world through his consciousness based business ventures. He’s the founder and former CEO of Green Monkey yoga studio and CEO and founder of Modern OM, a spirituality lifestyle brand and community. In our conversation, we discuss Myk’s entrepreneurial and spiritual journey, the valuable lessons he’s learned along the way, and his big plans for 2022.
Myk Likhov is an entrepreneur and widely recognized expert in the wellness industry. After receiving his MBA from world-renowned Wharton Business School, he realized that he was simply going through the motions and checking off the boxes that society expected of him. Instead of diving back into the investment world, he pursued his passion of starting a yoga company called Green Monkey. In his 4 years with the company, he grew it from concept to $900K revenue in 2010 to $2M revenue in 2011.
After exiting management and ownership of Green Monkey in 2011, Myk returned to the world of startups and consumer products. He leveraged his educational and professional background and was the COO of a financial product business. In 2015, he decided to pivot back into the wellness space by launching Modern OM.
Modern OM is all about opening up a conversation around what it means to be spiritually engaged in our contemporary modern lives. As Myk puts it, the family business is rooted in the mission to edge the world in the more conscious direction. He works alongside his mother and stepfather to create energy-infused jewelry and build a conscious community where they host daily in-person and online spirituality events and workshops.
In 2022, Myk is looking forward to expanding Modern OM and is on a journey to facilitating conversations about what it feels and looks like to be spiritual. Listen in on today’s episode to learn more about how Myk balances business and spirituality and his advice for people who are looking to go on a similar journey!
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[00:00:00] Anne O’Neil: Hey, Hey, GBLers how many of you out there meditate? The word meditate means to become familiar with, and we would love for you to begin to get familiar with our guest Mike , who is a guru in the conscious living and wellness industry. Mike is a former Wharton MBA and venture capitalists before creating modern own the brand for mindful humans based out of Miami.
Enjoy this conversation with Mike, as we expand our awareness on what it means to live with consciously.
[00:00:40] Barry Gottlieb: Our guest today is well-known, especially in the south beach area. Mike live cow has been one of these guys that started a great yoga studio franchise, and then built this incredible thing. But I don't want to give any of it away. Mike, we're delighted to have you here. And I think where we want to jump off is that you didn't start out when you were going to college.
Thinking, this is where you would be. So if we can go back just a little bit in time and tell us how you got to the point of first green monkey and then modern home. So give us a background
[00:01:18] Myk Likhov: please. Well, first of all, thank you guys so much for having the info, recognizing the work that I'm doing, that you do, that we do in.
Incredibly important for individuals to take on the role of leaders in, in sharing. From our experience. And I know that that's how you guys operate. I just met you in. But the most important thing for me is to share from a space of personal experience in a way that perhaps that touches somebody else and inspires others.
I'm not that big on sharing from, from some sort of dogma or some sort. Aspirational spot. I think that in the long run that doesn't really serve, although it may be inspiring in the, in the moment. So I'll share a part of my background, which I think is relevant, which is that I was a child of immigrants and, uh, born in Russia, Russian Jew raised in California and as many immigrants.
Taught trained if you will, to Excel, to succeed because our parents gave up a lot in order to be in this country. So there's a lot of expectations placed on many children whose parents immigrated from other countries to, to do well in school to get the right grades, to go to the right universities. And then all of those things.
And I did, I did those things and what was missing in my childhood was any sensitivity to what I actually was passionate about what I actually wanted to do. So again, this. I think something that's applicable to so many people, whether from other countries or not, but we grow up living into our families and our parents and our societies and our religions and our cultures expectations.
And whilst I did those things and I achieved success in those ways, graduating from UCLA at the age of 20, going to work for a hedge fund for Russia's first venture capitalist, and then ultimately ending back in the U S for business school at Wharton at the university of pencil. And I hit these marks, but I didn't feel anything.
If that makes sense. We can align to that. And I think that a lot of people are living in this space. You know, we doing the things, especially those of us who are privileged and have dedication to be successful in those areas is what, for what for, so where we met Barry about 14 years ago, or a dozen years ago was I'd finished from Wharton and in graduating, I wasn't sure what I was going to do.
And this is MBA, not undergrad. And I spoke with the career counselor. I don't remember his name. But, you know, I shared with them, should I go back into investing or should I go and start a thing? I didn't know what the best thing was going to be, but should I start it? And he looks at me and he just says, the world does not need another investor.
So that was fascinating. And that became a part of my story. And then I, I, for a variety of reasons, chose yoga, chose south Florida. And it took me into this other path of not only, you know, building a business, but self-exploration. And in the process of starting a yoga studio, I went through the process of becoming a yoga teacher, yoga certified so that I could understand the subject matter.
And so that. Relate with my colleagues and manage better. And I had a deep interest in the subject matter to begin with, but this inquiry opens me up in a fashion that as I shared earlier, I didn't really feel anything previously in the things that I was doing with my life and going down the path of opening a yoga business.
Set a foundation and set me on a path to many, many experiences in self exploration and really exciting things for me personally.
[00:05:20] Barry Gottlieb: So you went and started the green monkey yoga studio. What did you do from there?
[00:05:30] Myk Likhov: So green monkey was. My first serious entrepreneurial endeavor, where I was operating the business, where I was in the business as the CEO.
And, you know, it's tough, you know, 26, 27 years old, running a company with investors and team. So I learned a lot. I learned a lot about myself also. I was going down the spiritual path, but, but just in what it means to, to grow up and. To that extent. And after I exited my stake in the business would, after about four years, I ended up going back into the world of startups and consumer and found myself operating a startup, being a COO of a financial product business, kind of leveraging off of my, my finance and my kind of more classical background.
And it didn't work out the business. Didn't get lifted. So that was a fascinating, another fascinating experience upon which I, I went into business, uh, with my family. And modern home. I don't know if you know this, we've never talked about this was started off as a family business
[00:06:43] Anne O’Neil: or your mom works there right now with you.
[00:06:46] Myk Likhov: My mother is the one that designs the jewelry. Oh, that's
[00:06:49] Anne O’Neil: amazing. Yeah. It's so beautiful,
[00:06:50] Myk Likhov: too. Beautiful jewelry. Very nice. It's been a fascinating endeavor because there's so many facets of life. When you really looking at business and looking at entrepreneurship, it's really not one dimension. Right how fast you can grow a business, how much revenue, how profitable.
There's a lot of other aspects of it, which we can consider, which are our personal growth, our impact on the world, our relationships that we build and that we learned from, and for me, family was really unexpected. I never thought that I was going to be in business with family and, you know, everybody smiles because whether or not we've been there, we got.
We get how much that can, I will say rabbits there, there's a favorite quote that I have of Rumi who has so many quotes. And the quote that I love is if you are never rubbed, how will you become polished?
[00:07:44] Anne O’Neil: I love that.
[00:07:45] Myk Likhov: I love that. Wow. So the, you know, working with the family in a business, right. And that's a big part of my story actually, was that part of this business of modern, not only the impact that we're creating, but on a personal level, how that rubbing has helped Polish me into who I am today.
Is it more than
[00:08:08] Anne O’Neil: just your mom that's in the business or you guys work very closely together?
[00:08:13] Myk Likhov: Well, my stepfather and my mother are both in the business and. Call it different divisions. So they're on product. So we make jewelry, home goods, some other home products. And then my role in the business is the content, the programming brand partnerships, all of the things actually that I'm most excited about, which is a fun place.
[00:08:39] Anne O’Neil: You know, one of the podcasts I listened to, I loved your line of where you were really looking at for modern home was how do I create soul? And I was like, it just hit me like, wow. That is an incredible deep thought. When you're creating a business, where did that come from with your background of being an MBA, a high performer.
Elevating, you know, right from the start from college graduating in three years into this spirituality, that's really looking at soul. What was the bridge that really happened there for you?
[00:09:11] Myk Likhov: Well, I think it has to do with what I said is when I realized I did a company for me and what was green monkey and I think its role in my life was that it was a gateway.
Set me on a path to invest my time and energy and my purpose in things that are valuable to me. And it was coupled with in parallel with the business itself, led me to self-inquiry cause that's, that's yoga, that's the actual experience and transformation that we're talking about at green monkey anyways.
So I went into this path of deepening into who I was, what I really wanted. And, you know, at some point I only want to do the things that light me up. You know, and put my energy there and I look around and it's interesting to see a lot of businesses, whether they're in wellness or in mindfulness or spirituality or not.
And I wonder why did these people do this particular job? It doesn't seem like it lights them up. It doesn't seem like they're doing it. I'll say you said with soul, maybe these days, I'll say with love, I would really love to see a world as I'm sure. The two of you and many people listening or people are doing what they're doing with love.
How
[00:10:26] Barry Gottlieb: did you and modern own make the shift? During the pandemic, because, and I guess I'm jumping ahead because I know you used to do this thing called cushion crawl, and maybe you can tell us about that, but then tell us, how did that switch? How did you make that shift into a digital world?
[00:10:51] Myk Likhov: So I've two different tracks here as well to share about one is I have a dear friend named Jennifer grace, maybe, you know her, but she's a dear business partner of mine.
And she called me days before lockdown, before the pandemic were officially, you know, settled in south Florida. And she said, you've got to go. I go, what? And she said, you have to go digital now and get toilet paper.
Great advisers. I stock up on toilet paper and go digital. This was, this was, and she's like, I got to go. That's all. And she dropped the line. And five days later I went digital and I started offering a different teacher facilitator every single day, 10:00 AM on zoom. Never really used them before. Never did anything digitally.
And my inspiration for that was to continue serving my local community. So if people in Miami were going to be able to go into the bungalow, go see us where we were previously in real life. I want it to be. Support people in, I didn't know how long the challenging time would be, but we get it in this period.
And as many things. You put one foot in front of the other, then another foot and another foot and another foot. Then you look back over your shoulder and you're a hundred steps in and you go, how did I get? Here you go. Oh, I know how I started. That's how I got here.
[00:12:17] Anne O’Neil: You know, I love at the name modern own.
Can you tell us the word, um, why you chose that? And just a little bit of like the definition or meaning specifically to you. This is going to be very new. Concepts between meditation and consciousness for some of our listeners. So love to kind of just dive deep into that.
[00:12:36] Myk Likhov: Cool. So, awesome. Eastern traditions in yoga and Buddhism is a Sanskrit word.
It represents the primordial sound, the sound of all creation. So in the west and the Bible says first, there was the word it's actually all the word was old and Allmand, compresses everything. So it's used as a mantra as a sound that has repeated meditation and prayer, and it's kind of become. You know, representative of Eastern spirituality.
So the term modern home for me was actually really important because my interest is great. We have Eastern spirituality, we've got this lineage and heritage and this primordial sound. How does that play into today? How does that play into a life of social media of stress and relationships? You know, alcohol and holiday parties and zoom.
And so for me, it's really about opening up a conversation around what it means to be spiritually engaged in our contemporary modern lives.
[00:13:51] Anne O’Neil: Wow. I love on your website. It says edging the world in the more conscious direction. So, so cool that you're creating the future of spirituality for everyone.
Really, really awesome.
[00:14:03] Myk Likhov: Um, and that actually, it's really interesting. You bring that up because I'm thinking about that deeply, deeply, deeply in January, we have this particular challenge. So it's a continuation of what, what I shared with you. It's digital, everyday is a different teacher. We have incredible facilitators on it and importantly, so they're sharing their practices, their wisdom, their lectures, but I also.
To infuse conversation and discussion around these topics of like, what is spirituality? How does it play out? You know, what's really going on in today's world that is in service of raising awareness in ways in consciousness. And perhaps may, perhaps not so much. So we have, uh, three panels in particular that are, I think are going to be really interesting.
One is mindfulness in 2022, which is panel around this around what is meditation? What is mindful. Today, you know, like how do we navigate our, our way through these contemplated practices in today's world? Another panel is sexuality and spirituality. So the intersection of sexuality and spirit. It's interesting.
You know, there's a lot to be said about it, but sexuality is sometimes used to sell modern day spirituality. And so there's a lot of conversation to be had around there. And the final topic is awakening an allyship. And what that is is, you know, we think about spirituality and spiritual practices and oftentimes it's quite selfish and I'm doing this because I have anxiety.
Because I want to grow. I want to go to other dimensions. I want to have an experience beyond suffering or beyond my limitations. Okay. That's spirituality for your sake, but what does it feel like if it's a spiritual path for the benefit of others or the benefit of.
[00:15:57] Anne O’Neil: That's so powerful. And you, as a leader, you can tell are very intentional about each of the little aspects of modern home and what you're creating internally and externally.
I'd love to know a little bit about how you actually balance like the outer world of chaos, and then going inside and building that same kind of level of friendship and community. And calmness on the inside. So how do you balance between the outside world and the inside world, and also growing your community and business,
[00:16:28] Myk Likhov: you know, on a personal level that the truth is, is, is I, I do work the entrepreneur hours right now.
So the balance isn't really, in terms of time, I try to keep quality time for myself. Perhaps one of the things I'll say is I really value relationships. So yesterday I had a very busy day and a friend of mine is. Just flew in from Costa Rica and wanted to get together. And I'm the person I'm so busy with the things I need to get done.
I make the time to connect and I know other entrepreneurs and other people that, that just simply wouldn't, you know, there it's like that person would just be a distraction and that accomplishment of what I can get done today. So relationships are very important to me and I like to allocate some time to that.
And then for me, it's I have to move my. And whenever I don't move my body, I am not more out of balance. But if I, you know, I have a few hacks, if you will, to the exercises that I do, they get me maximum benefit and I do those things. And when I do those regularly, it does energize me. It's incredibly important to toe a well-balanced life is to feel really good in your.
No just
[00:17:40] Anne O’Neil: real briefly. Barry and I have been meditating for a long time. Barry told me earlier, almost over 50 years, I've been meditating in my own way as a, for quite some time now. And you're talking about building community. What is your advice for someone who's just getting started or just starts to have an interest in modern own community or in meditation?
What does that look like for someone who's brand new to this spirituality world of looking into.
[00:18:08] Myk Likhov: Well, there's a lot. There there's a lot because one of the features of modern home and where we really shine is that I don't push any particular lineage or any particular practice. I think that there's many, many ways in, and we should explore.
A variety of them and then see what feels really good. What's really effective for each and every one of us. So that's high levels. I think people really, who are interested, I would hope that they stumble across a modern home or a similar organization or community that explores many different ways. And the one thing I'll say is that there is a difference when we talk about meditation, where it's self-generated or externally sourced I eat.
When you're listening to somebody lead you in a guided meditation, it can be relaxing. You can go to a different place. It's beautiful and it's helpful, but. Uh, meditation itself while there are a number of different lineages and practices, a real meditation takes place from within and TM is an, a mantra based meditation is one of those ways.
And there's a few others. There's breath, there's concentration, there's mantra based, but purely from a standpoint of meditation, what I tell people. Great. Listen to the apps, go for it. When you're starting like test, see what you like, see what philosophies, see whose voices see, see what those are. And once you get comfortable with that, the invitation is to take on a practice where you don't need an app.
You don't need a teacher in front of you leading you. It's nice. And in my case with modern home, my hope is that somebody listens and says, oh, that. I've never heard of human design or a while astrology can be helpful or the philosophy of Buddhism or, or how is that different than, than yoga philosophy and so on and so on.
But the actual practices that I would support people the most in, in cultivating would be those practices where they don't need me. They don't need calm or Headspace. And that puts the person in the driver's. Well, Mike,
[00:20:25] Anne O’Neil: we're about ready to wrap a, tell us a little bit what the 2022 looks like for yourself and for modern home and what you guys are creating
[00:20:33] Myk Likhov: there.
So, 2022 is really big on mission and really big on returning to this root of opening up this conversation around what it feels like and looks like to be spiritual. I'm sending an email out in a few days and I wrote the subject or the content. And there's a lot of questions around, you know, that people are not asking or not talking about.
So, you know, how do you use meditation or mindfulness in your relationship with your family? How do you do different certain practices that actually get you to the core of what the issues are? And don't just cover them up, you know, does wearing a Cape make you more spiritual, you know, are sexually revealing photos on social media appropriate.
Or are they savvy way to market your spiritual offering? You know, there's so many interesting things around how we can live in alignment and, and live into a vibration that raises others up, you know, and again, this, this practicing for ourselves versus in practicing for the benefit of others. So I really want to get into those conversations more and more because I think they need to be had, I think that, you know, we're all spirit.
So there's no person that's more or less spiritual than anybody else. It's simply how we. Evolve in our lives to be in alignment with purpose, with mission. And we feel it. If we're in alignment, we feel it. And if we're not in alignment, we definitely feel it. And so there's a lot of conversations to be had around that, that I, I want to, to bring into modern home this year is going to be about growth around expansion.
We having a lot of very, very cool opportunities coming. And, um, I'm here for it. I'm here for it. I'm ready for it. But I put in a lot of foundational work and within Miami, it's amazing too, because I feel like there's a foundation here that, that I've established that now is going to give us more room to play and to grow and, and to focus on those community building initiatives.
[00:22:37] Anne O’Neil: Um, well, I know for myself being down here in Miami, I'll definitely be joining you on that journey. That last comment was so profound about everyone's spiritual, but it's just about how you're aligned to your purpose and your mission. That's incredible. Barry. You have any last closing statements here?
[00:22:54] Barry Gottlieb: Yeah. Look, it's, it's been 12 or 14 years. Mike. We need to make this happen. More often, because for me, this was an honor, it was a privilege to reconnect with you. And I look forward to doing more of these kinds of conversations.
[00:23:10] Myk Likhov: This point about what you give and that's abundance. I don't think that we grow at this point.
I don't think that we grow or work on ourselves for ourselves. I think we do this for the benefit of, of all, as we work on ourselves, we become better people. Not so we're better. We have another, you know, another metal or another prize. We do it. So. For the betterment of all. And I think that will totally shift the course of how we interact with that
[00:23:38] Barry Gottlieb: is somewhat your definition of love.
It really, truly is. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here with us. I'm glad you had the opportunity to sit with us and meet Ann. And I know she's going to be coming in to your sessions down there because she's right around the corner. I'm up here in west Palm beach. And if I ever get down there, I will absolutely stop in to see you.
[00:24:02] Myk Likhov: Absolutely. Thank you guys so much for doing this.
[00:24:08] Anne O’Neil: Well, thank you so much for listening into our conversation. If you have a GBL story in your life, share it with us on Instagram @getbusylivin_pod. We might just share your story on a future episode. And lastly, listeners of the podcast can get a free chapter of Barry's book: Brillian On the Basics. Simply go to www.getbusylivinpodcast.com to download it now. Well, thank you so much for sharing in the good vibes and giving back and GBLing with us.