Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Howard.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
That’s a much deeper question for a philosophizing mind like mine. I entered the world on the second day of the millennial generation in Buffalo, New York, the son of two Syracuse graduates, Anastasia and Eugene Howard. They raised me in Greenville, South Carolina in the 80s and 90s – an interesting era growing up with so many awesome friends while feeling so torn between my diverse experiences and the history there. I played basketball for Brown University and had my ego regulated, and after graduation worked in the entertainment industry, and on Wall Street. My sprint through the All-American dream took a turn for what I thought was the worst when my back went out at 30 – two herniated disks and “the spine of a 90-year-old.”
I was denied surgery by a hospital I’d love to name. Physical therapy helped a little. Doctors prescribed pain killers that didn’t do much for my pain but raves aside proved very effective in turning me into a raging asshole. My wife and I haven’t been back to Coachella since. At least we saw 2Pac… (Raising two wonderful children is the real reason we haven’t partied like we used to.)
Can go without saying, but I’m saying it anyway, the healthcare industry wasn’t doing much for me, so I started researching my own solutions.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
My journey isn’t for the faint of heart – but only because I wasn’t aware of retro-fitting the standard approach as events unfolded. In hindsight, my disks herniated from a combination of things – minor scoliosis, playing pre-Brown basketball on a concrete floor for four years, uninformed exercise techniques, not enough stretching, and a ton of emotional stress.
I didn’t know emotions could create pain or disease until managing my stress was the best solution I could come up with for my back pain.
From the moment of that injury, my body endured a process that impacted the way I lived and eventually impacted the way I thought – and it did not start in a positive direction. If I spelled out the whole story, you’d think every emotion I ever suppressed escaped from those two disks and were the root of every discontent I felt for all the troubles in my life and the world around me. Everyone I grew up around knew me as an emotional kid, so keeping my cool had been a lifetime challenge. Once my back snapped, I couldn’t hold up the strain anymore and the flood gates opened. Burnout wasn’t a thing when I went through it.
It happened at home. It happened at work. It came close to happening in public. By “it,” I mean miserable me. I experienced pain – physical, career, the re-direct to writing in Hollywood, becoming a new dad without my own to lean on – all the while looking for a job with a moral compass. I couldn’t find one, so I created one.
Every entrepreneur has an origin story full of investors, employers, industries, doubters, and regulators acting as gatekeepers. I work side by side with people at ScaleLA taking similar journeys, trying to upgrade struggling systems, but getting big, old institutions to embrace new ideas feels like getting Jabba the Hutt on a treadmill. We’re not giving up.
My wife sends me celebrity rejection stories when I need the motivation. They used to remind me that it will only take one other person to get me through the illusory door of validation. It’s taken me until recently to realize I was the one keeping it shut. Nothing slows us down like fear.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with U4Ea (Euphoria) – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
I’ve dubbed myself a mindful economist. I’m gaining a reputation as an audio pharmacist. One I have a degree for. The other I do not.
There’s this technology growing in popularity called binaural beats. They allow you to shift your consciousness, say from distracted to focused, or from alert to asleep. Back when I learned of them, I had to download some archaic tech to build my own beat combinations. That got me on the hunt for the human body-aligned tones to use. I came across the Solfeggio scale, a range of musical notes Gregorian monks use for self-health through emotional control previously calculated by Pythagoras. Once I combined them, I felt like I hacked magic. The correlations between these musical tones and color theory, a branch of psychology that studies the human emotional response to color, were too numerous to ignore. I finally understood how music shifts our emotions and how emotions shape our lives.
Next, I built out an emotional matrix and used it to counteract my frustrations. It started working for me, so I shared it with a dear, open-minded friend. We both gravitated to our own perspectives on how to recognize the journey as something to be enjoyed and minimize what pisses you off.
We both experienced how reality shifts based on predominate thoughts. The self-help world is flooding with books talking about the power of mindfulness and the importance of pursuing happiness. We fused physical with digital and used the prevailing literature as validation.
I continued to share the idea with friends and family until I raised enough money to build a prototype. I call it U4Ea (euphoria) and since launching in October of 2017, we have over 22,000 users (76% retention) and average 300 users per day with an 82% success rate – meaning 82% of the people who share their feedback tell us our app helped them get to where they wanted to go mentally, emotionally, and/or physically. They listen to it while they work, sleep, exercise, enjoy music, meditate and all sorts of scenarios. It’s still a challenge for me to feel like I’ve done what needs to be done since it doesn’t feel like we’ve reached world peace, but it reminds me to be grateful that I’m helping who I can.
It’s challenging to run a successful business without thinking like a capitalist, so I do it with all the compassion I can in order to deliver an affordable and effective product.
I spend my time helping those who use my app to deal with their anxiety, muscle pain, depression, focus, (lack of) creativity, chemotherapy, surgery, migraines, colds, sleep, etc. I send them combos over text until they get the hang of U4Ea’s flexibility. I’ve been part of teams that have won hackathons hosted by UCLA, UCI, and CHLA while maintaining my pursuits for solutions to the opioid epidemic and children’s health. We’re currently reaching out to mindful companies looking to sponsor access to U4Ea for their employees, communities, and customers, as well those looking to bundle U4Ea with their apps, brick & mortar experiences, events, platforms and more.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
HA! You could ask my wife that question and she’d tell you that I’ve mapped out how to turn the world into everyone’s version of paradise. If a presidential candidate needed an economic advisor, I’d show them a modern way to employ the masses, balance the budget and stimulate economies around the world. Until then, I’m designing virtual reality games to treat diabetes and mental wellness.
I’m happy to see mindfulness having such an impact at the corporate level. Companies are starting to see bottom-line improvements from ESG (environmental, social, governance) translating into higher valuations in relatively short periods. Things will move even faster once the government offers tax incentives for ESG expenses – for those that need incentives to empower their employees, take care of their communities, and do what they can for the environment.
I’ll continue to promote the potential of sound as a healing modality to the medical and scientific communities. We aren’t far from giving Western medicine the boost it’s been looking for. Thank you, Dr. Pam Cantor, for your study on adolescent trauma and recovery. It is a very important step you are taking with your approach to transforming schools with traumatized youth.
I don’t see the world the way I used to, so even the little things continue to feel like big changes. What matters is how I deal with the changes as they come. Parts of each day feel like reading my favorite story with new eyes. I’ve spent enough time trying to understand my truth, so now my goal is to humbly live it simply.
Pricing:
- U4Ea can be purchased on iOS devices for $.99
Contact Info:
- Address: 3415 S. Sepulveda Blvd., 10th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90034 - Website: www.U4EaApp.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bizzzebe/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brandon.howard.Inker1
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/BizzzEBE
- Other: www.amginEInk.com
Image Credit:
Noisette Visuals
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