We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful JOSH BROWN. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with JOSH below.

Hi JOSH, thanks for joining us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

I have had multiple defining moments in my life that have changed my career trajectory. A byproduct of these defining moments were numerous lessons learned, wisdom gained through experiences, and positive momentum which in turn would help propel me to a better version of myself. This would inevitably lead to more defining moments and more life lessons learned. Through a constant process of refining, I have learned this is a never-ending cycle that will continue to repeat itself for as long as I am alive and progressing.

As a young adult, the first major defining moment that changed my career trajectory was when I joined the Army after graduating college which helped instill toughness, discipline, and confidence. After the Army, obtaining my personal training certification and working a “side hustle” as I was simultaneously working as a full-time employee was another defining moment where I learned that I could do much more than what I thought I could do. Starting my first Health and Wellness company which would eventually fail and go out of business was a defining moment in my career as I learned how not to run a business and the importance of resiliency, resourcefulness, and thinking outside of the box.

Nothing was a more pivotal, defining moment than taking the leap of faith and deciding to start my own Health and Wellness Company, Cryo Nation. This was the most defining moment for me as it is by far the most risk I ever took on. Whereas in the previous company I started I was only a 50/50 partner, with Cryo Nation, the success or failure is 100% on me as I own 100% of the company.

While I was nervous and undoubtedly had butterflies, I didn’t let the butterflies paralyze me but instead used them as fuel to take massive action. General Patton once said, “A good plan, violently executed today, is better than a perfect plan next week”. Decisive action is crucial, the only mistake is not taking massive action.

Starting off, I rented an office space and I financed 1 cryotherapy unit. That was all I had to my name. I had no employees, no money, no home to go back to at the end of the day. I literally lived at the office sleeping on my Army cot for the first few years of the business. I never took an off day, a streak that continues even to this day…and I started Cryo Nation in 2014.

This led me to one of the first lessons I learned as an entrepreneur – if you really want to create something meaningful, chances are you must give up the idea of a “work-life balance”, at least when you first start. People always say, “Work smarter, not harder”. The problem with this mindset is that too many people want to work “smart” without ever having worked “hard” in the first place and that is a logic fail because you must work extremely hard before you are even capable of potentially truly working smart, as the “hard” work is what eventually leads to the potential of being able to do the “smart” work as you refine your processes, make adjustments, and become more efficient and intelligent in your work.

There are also many smart people that are also working hard as well, so if you are unwilling to do the same, you will lose to those that are willing to work hard and work smart. You must have a delayed gratification approach when it comes to “work-life balance” if you truly want to succeed in business and in life.

This means you must be willing to put in long hours and become an expert at saying “no” to things that you want to say “yes” to. When “normal” people see you working so hard towards your passion they will tell you things like “you’re crazy”, that you are “working too hard”, and you are going to “burnout” …I learned all these types of comments are just affirmation that you are on the right path….

You must have this mindset because you and you alone are responsible for your success or failure in business and in life, which was another valuable life lesson that I learned by starting my own company – I am 100% responsible for everything that happens in my life, both the good and bad. On the flip side of the coin, this also taught me that no one, not even my own family who loves me dearly cares about me enough to ensure that I am living my best life possible, that I am fulfilled, and that I am ultimately successful – I must do that myself. This means I am responsible for all realms of my life and the business – from doing SEO work on the website to making sure the toilets are clean, and everything else in between.

When you have so much to do, you have no time to waste. This taught me a valuable lesson on the importance of speed. It is all about speed. Can you turn your 10-year plan into a 1-year or 2-year plan? Everyone tells you to be patient in life but the truth is we have very limited time here on this earth, so if you want to have a massive impact you need to stop wasting time and make every minute count – you can’t afford to waste a single moment because your main competitor is always working and their number one objective is to put you out of business – whether this is true or not, this has to be your mindset in order to persevere and overcome the difficulties which will seem never-ending because they are which led me to the next valuable lesson that I learned by starting Cryo Nation.

I learned to stop wishing for less problems or fewer “fires” and instead learned to wish to be a better fire fighter. Like our existence during our time on this earth, starting your own business is very difficult. You need to know this when going into business and going into anything challenging in life because if you approach the situation thinking it is going to be easy, you are in for a rude awakening and the gap between your false perception of what you think it is going to be like and the reality of what it is actually like, will cause distress.

You must be willing to sacrifice, you must be willing to endure pain, and you must learn how to convert pain into energy and into something positive, not destructive. It is all about your stress tolerance level. Your ability to absorb and take on stress is directly tied to how successful you will (or won’t be) in business and in life. As you advance and level up, you will encounter bigger and more numerous problems and “fires”.

You must learn to embrace the suck and be thankful for your issues and your fires, not upset over them. This helped me learn the valuable lesson and warrior mentality that all the best moments in my life spawned from all the worst moments in my life. When I approach my challenges with this mindset, they become much easier and more manageable to deal with.

I learned that this also beats the alternative mindset of a victim mentality mindset of “Why did this happen to me?” or “Why am I so unlucky?”. This type of thinking leads to a victim mentality and leaves me feeling powerless, hopeless, and unable to level up in life and in business.

Developing a warrior mindset when dealing with your trials and tribulations is paramount because you normally won’t feel motivated to do what you need to do but you must learn to do it anyways if you want to realize your full potential which leads to the next lesson I learned.

Discipline over Motivation, all day, every day. You are not always going to feel motivated to work, in fact, most days you won’t. You must have discipline and do it anyways even when you don’t feel like it.

If I only worked out when I felt like working out, I would be in horrible health because most days I don’t feel like working out. If I only worked when I felt like working, I would be broke because most days I don’t feel like going to work. If I only paid my taxes when I felt like paying my taxes, I would have the IRS knocking on my door because I normally don’t feel like paying my taxes. The point is, you normally won’t feel like doing the things that you must do but you must perform and do them regardless of how you feel.

I learned that being a (good) business owner, you are always working on what is going wrong with your business, not what is going right. It is rare as a business owner that you are doing what you want to do or what you are “motivated” to do, you must be disciplined enough to do what you need to do.

At the end of the day, this mindset leads to more success and a more fulfilled and meaningful life than those who have no ability to delay gratification and only seek short-term fulfillment which ultimately fuels emptiness, underachieving, and regret.

This taught me the valuable lesson that I shouldn’t seek a life of “easy” or “fun” as happiness is fleeting but instead, I should seek a life full of meaning and difficulty because there is value to be extracted from difficult moments. This is because difficulty and value are linked together.

If you want something that is meaningful or valuable or rare, you inherently also want something that is difficult because if it was easy, it wouldn’t be meaningful, valuable, or rare because everyone else would have it because it was so easy to obtain.

I have learned that we as humans are intrinsically designed to carry a heavy burden. I have also learned the bigger the burden, the bigger the blessing. However, you must be able to withstand the pressure of the blessing because otherwise it will only act as a burden that will not only halt your progress but will also crush you under its weight. As they say, “diamonds are formed under pressure.” but you must foster the right environment and mindset to produce the diamonds out of the rough.

Everyone knows about the downward-spiral effect but I learned that the upward-spiral effect is just as real. If you are committed to yourself, you will be consistent, if you are consistent, you will build confidence which in turn will lead you to be even more committed, which will make you even more consistent and will help you build even more confidence – this amplifying effect has no limits.

Before you know it, due to the compounding upward-spiral effect, you will have propelled yourself to new levels of success only dreamed of by most people, living a life of meaning and success defined by your parameters, your beliefs, and your values which can be applied in any realm of human endeavor that you desire.

Finally, while I learned that it is crucial to have a goal and a plan on how to reach those goals, my day-to-day focus should be on the process and the journey, not the end result. There is a saying that the man or woman who loves walking will walk further than the man or woman who loves the destination. When you love the journey, everything else takes care of itself and you hit your goals as a side effect. You must remember this, especially during difficult times, and learn to always remain confident in yourself, your ability, and the journey that you are on.

These are a few of the defining moments and lessons learned in my life so far that have changed my career trajectory. I am excited to realize more defining moments, learn more life lessons, accumulate more wisdom, and have as massive of an impact as possible during my time on this earth.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I have always had a passion for health and wellness and helping others.

When I was training in the Army, I injured myself which led me to eventually try cryotherapy. Amazed by the results and already being in the health and wellness realm, I was naturally intrigued by the opportunity and decided to start my own health and wellness center based around Cryotherapy back in 2014. As I progressed, we continued adding more services and products that revolved around cryotherapy and other non-medical, holistic health and wellness-based offerings.

Our goal as a company is to provide simple, sustainable solutions for weight loss, pain reduction, and anti-aging to help people live longer more vibrant lives. We put out inflammation or “fire” in the body so that you can take care of life’s fires and have a positive impact on the community.

We are the busiest cryotherapy center in the US and we are committed to having the greatest possible positive impact on our customers and the surrounding community as possible because that is what it is all about – helping as many people as possible to GET COLD, NOT OLD!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn being a perfectionist and overplanning and instead be OK with making mistakes and adjusting as I go. I learned this lesson the hard way when I was training in the Army. Speed is always crucial in the Army whether it be creating a mission plan or executing it. I came to understand this important lesson on a mission where I oversaw the unit as the Platoon Leader. As such, I oversaw coordinating and carrying out a successful mission plan.

My superiors gave me the mission objectives and told me to quickly create a plan or a course of action to complete the mission. While I created a perfect and well-coordinated plan to complete the mission objectives, it took me about 7 minutes to create the mission plan. Our superiors that were overseeing the mission were timing me and they wanted the planning to be completed in 5 minutes or less. While two minutes may not seem like a big deal, to our superiors, it was enough to end the mission, make an example out of me, and give me a failing grade for the mission.

They were trying to teach me a lesson on the importance of speed. They told me that I had spent too much time planning and that I should have started the mission sooner and just improvised for anything that came up.

As someone that likes to be as prepared as possible, I always tried to avoid mistakes at all costs. However, I learned a valuable lesson – the only wrong action is inaction, so I had to unlearn being a perfectionist and instead learn to take massive action as quickly as possible and being OK with making mistakes and adjusting as I go. Planning will only take you so far before the law of diminishing returns sets in.

Mistakes and unexpected occurrences are going to inevitably happen, especially if what you are trying to accomplish is difficult or meaningful. The person who can overcome mistakes and challenges as they arise will accomplish much more and have a more impactful existence than the perfectionist that is terrified of making a mistake and therefore limits themselves and what they can accomplish due to their mindset.

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?

If I could go back, I would choose the same profession and specialty. In fact, if I could go back in time, there is nothing that I would change in my life, not even the mistakes I made or the hardships I endured because those taught me the most valuable life lessons. When you have this mindset, even mistakes and “wrong” decisions that you made in the past are worthwhile and beneficial because you invert all failure into success. When you have this mental approach, you can live without regrets or wanting to go back and do things differently.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cryonationwellness.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cryonation/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cryonation/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-brown-150a8a17b/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/CryoNation
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOXxXpYr0ksvEF5cRSgoPsQ
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/cryo-nation-grapevine