We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ido Grinberg a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ido, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

This is a story on how cacao has completely changed my life… Up until 3 years ago, I had a “normal” job and I lived a “normal” life. A life full of stress, daily anxieties, but with great income and in a very “safe” industry – Construction.
I owned a remodeling company, made very good money, but was extremely unhappy (without even knowing why…)
During that time, I was introduced to cacao and started using it daily instead of my morning coffee. It was not the regular cacao powder or the cacao nibs you can find in any grocery store, it was “ceremonial grade” cacao.
Working with cacao not only gave me a sense of ease and joy, but it also guided me to start and develop a morning spiritual routine – I made my morning cacao very slowly and with intention and that brought a lot of inner peace. I was feeling very grounded, but also very uplifted (unlike the “rushy rushy” energy of working with coffee).
I started meditating on a regular basis and was really inviting the “Spirit of Mama Cacao” to heal my heart.
You see, traditionally, cacao is a sacred medicine. The Mayan culture used to call it “Food of the Gods” and they believed that cacao was gifted to humans by the gods to help them connect to their hearts, to help them find self love and compassion.
A year after I started drinking cacao every day and after I participated in a few meaningful cacao ceremonies, I realized that I wanted to dedicate my life to this plant medicine. I sold my part in my company and started my cacao company, MsPerception.
Today, our company imports ceremonial cacao from Peru and Costa Rica and my wife and I are guiding weekly cacao ceremonies at our garden in the valley.
We use cacao to bring people together in community and also back to their hearts where so often we get disconnected. It is the medicine the world needs now more than ever…

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am an ambassador of plant medicines in general and specifically cacao. My work with the medicine of cacao is meant to help people on few levels –
*The physical – cacao is a superfood. Rich with minerals, vitamins, calcium and antioxidants. Cacao can be a great coffee alternative as it gives enough energy but doesn’t cause an energy crash.
*Mentally – cacao can clear the mind, bring a sense of ease and comfort when you drink it
* spiritually – cacao is related to a loving spirit that help us stay connected to our hearts. It is used traditionally for thousands of years in a sacred space to bring together Community and to help people heal from depression and other mental issues.
My wife Sara and I are so humble and proud to get the chance to hold weekly cacao ceremonies and to introduce this medicine to many people that needs it.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

As part of my spiritual journey, I had to unlearn what’s really important in life… We are taught to believe that happening comes when you buy more things, when you are successful at work, when you get a bigger house, a nicer car…
What i’ve learned on my journey is that things won’t make you happy, because it’s very temporary. True happiness and joy comes from inside, nothing outside of us can cause us to be happy. That’s the beauty of doing the inner-work and work with plant medicines as cacao.

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

I see my business as a vocation, meaning that even if I had given now 10 million dollars, i would still do exactly what i do today. When your life purpose is to help people on their journey, nothing can be more satisfying…

Contact Info:

• Website: https://msperception.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/msperception.co/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/msperception.co
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@msperception.agent.of.change
• Other: direct link to our cacao ceremonies – https://msperception.co/pages/cacao-ceremonies