Today we’d like to introduce you to Jordana Reim.
Jordana, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
When I was a teenager, I knew what I wanted to do with my life: I would be VP of Media for a record label. That was before record labels lost their dominance – the business was different before YouTube and social media. I went to school for management and marketing and got involved in the music industry, initially by putting on concerts – one of my first was 50 Cent, remember him?
I worked at labels in NYC during college and my first job was in digital for Entertainment brands. In the entertainment world, as a 23 years old with little experience, my value was in sweat. I would put in sweat equity (that would never return equity) for 12 hours a day, all the while I barely covered my share of rent in a 3-bedroom/1-bathroom Brooklyn apartment. Meanwhile, I had developed ulcerative colitis and I would flare often.
Especially with an illness, I needed financial security. So I moved into the digital advertising world. The hours were just as bad, but I was recognized for my sweat, which turned into expertise, and in five years I had quadrupled my annual income.
It was during a bout of extreme stress when I was 24 that my boss asked me what I really wanted to do. English was his second language and what he meant to ask was, “What do you really want to work on?”
I blurted out a surprising response, “I want to run a wellness company. I want to be healthy, live it and teach it every day.”
His face looked like he was going to be sick, but he said, “you should go do that then…”
In fear of losing my security, I immediately recoiled, stating I wanted to work on the Lance Armstrong campaign.
It would be eight more years before I’d let myself explore my surprising dream.
I moved to Los Angeles from NYC in 2011 to work as an Executive Producer. By the way, I almost said “to be an Executive Producer” in that last sentence, which was my problem. I identified myself as my work, as a label, I was losing who I was underneath titles.
Despite that, Los Angeles was one of the best moves of my life to date. The environment was conducive to well-being. I found I was able to take more time for myself and for practices I love such as yoga, meditation, pranayama and activities like hiking and dancing.
I began doing more work on myself: taking courses in personal development, meditating, reflecting. I knew I had been out of alignment with my truth for years, but struggled with what another life direction might look like. At that time, I was able to incorporate mindfulness to shift my perspective and began to enjoy my day-to-day work and life more than ever, but I was still unfulfilled.
In a deep and telling reflective experience I had in 2016 at the Ganges river in Rishikesh, I understood that I needed to leave my fancy job. I needed to take time to explore what else was available to me and who I would “be” without a work title to define me.
What I did was extreme and I don’t think that everyone needs to take a leap like that, but for me, I couldn’t get out of the cycle without the hard stop. I couldn’t discover my biggest gifts and truest self in the midst of what I was doing for work then. And, with full transparency, I didn’t up and quit. I made projections, understood my “runway” time and worst-case scenarios. I let go and I followed my heart’s path to discover new teachers, new countries and ancient practices for well-being that I share with clients today.
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?
After I left my job in Advertising, I didn’t become a healer and coach right away. I actually started my own Media company that closely aligned with the work I’d been doing for the past decade. I thought that being my own boss would be better for me, but if I’m to be honest, once I let go of my job title, I freaked out. I needed something to do and I didn’t wait more than a few weeks before I had the LLC, consulting clients and even a speaking engagement at eBay’s National Conference.
I did media consulting for about six months before I no longer wanted to do it. I decided to travel for a bit of time to clear my mind before coming back to take another “real” job.
It didn’t happen this way… I found myself traveling and living for a year and a half in Asia. It was about three months into my trip when things shifted, I was hired to teach meditation at a center in Thailand and then was requested for private sessions and I started making a living doing this work and I loved it.
From this time forward, I would continue to move every few months from Thailand to Bali to India and back to Thailand. I’d study techniques and I’d create work for myself. I supported my lifestyle and travels the whole way through this way. Still, there was a great deal of uncertainty. I remember flying from India to Thailand for a job interview at a wellness center. I was carrying my whole life with me – some 45kgs of luggage, and leaving my Indian family, my comfort zone, for the hope of this work.
While I did make an arrangement in Thailand, there wasn’t much community and my work was challenging. I was teaching meditation primarily for clients who were at the center for cancer treatments or critical illnesses. One of the women I worked with who I loved very much was advised to go home for a treatment in London. I didn’t realize at the time that she was advised to go because she was going to die. She died days later. I didn’t have anyone to process that with and also I needed to break this news to one of my other clients who also had cancer. I grew so much working with critical illness, but it didn’t go without massive challenge.
When I returned to the USA, I felt shell-shocked and I had to start all over again. Now living on the west side of Los Angeles, I had to make a lot more money to get by than traveling India and Thailand. And it took a lot of time. Just as I started my first teaching job at a Yoga Nest in Venice, I fell and broke my arm. I couldn’t teach or type for months and I couldn’t support myself. I felt like it was a huge setback and I became depressed, further stunting forward movement with my coaching and healing business.
I had planned to take a group to Everest Base Camp in April of 2019. The first few months of 2019, I did my best to focus on that. Could I just look to this goal and afterward I said, “you can end all your pain, you can get a job with a salary again!”
The Everest retreat was so physically and emotionally challenging. Holding space for the group with some difficult personalities in extreme conditions. It tested every tool in my facilitator’s toolkit. But, coming out of it successful was all the momentum I needed and I’ve been going stronger since. I mean, what a feat to celebrate!
So, as you know, we’re impressed with 180 Retreats – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
I create mentally and spiritually enlightening experiences for individuals and groups. 180 Retreats creates experiences that are immersed in nature, culture and spirituality, primarily in the Himalayas of Nepal. Evolved Leaders Club is a curriculum for executives done on a 7-day adventure to Everest Base Camp.
People know me for bringing the vibrations of the Himalayas to wherever they are. Whether it’s in one of my group classes at Unplug Meditation in Los Angeles, my private life coaching or healing sessions or the Vedic Sound Healers Teacher Trainings I lead, passing down the lineage of sound healing from my teacher in Nepal. I spent so much time in the Himalayas from 2018 to now that my clients’ joke that I have a pied-a-terre there. In a sense, I do, living out of my Nepalese business partner’s extra bedroom when I visit.
Although I have the extraordinary honor of taking people on transformational journeys to new heights in the Himalayas, like to Everest, I’m looking forward to anchoring even deeper into Los Angeles in the next two years. I’ve experienced a lot, seen great sights and it’s time to make sure that I have the availability to bring the peace I’ve found to those who really need it – the entrepreneurs, creatives, thought-leaders and spiritually-curious of my beautiful home town, LA.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I’ll be spending a lot of time this year creating digital mindfulness programs for clients and meditation apps. I’m excited to be partnering with a new app specifically targeted for workplace wellness – I’ll be authoring content to help people work with more focus and creativity through meditation and breathing practices.
In Los Angeles, I’ll be running Vedic Sound Healer facilitation trainings for practitioners (acupuncturists, massage therapists, yoga teachers and healers) who would like to learn 1 on 1 Vedic therapies for clients as well as learn sound baths the Himalayan way.
180 Retreats is going to shift the Everest business to Evolved Leaders Club, a joint venture with Dave Evans of Act Sustainably in the UK. This is the first of a series of leadership trainings, this one being the “Everest Evolution.”
And my first book comes out in May! I’m beyond excited to share this beautiful labor of love.
Pricing:
- Group Retreats $4,000 – $25,000
- Personalized Wellness Vacations Start at $5,000
- 1-1 Healing Session (Meditation, Breathing Exercises, Coaching & Anxiety Relief): Available via FaceTime & Zoom at Sliding Scale
- Teacher Trainings: $550 – $2,000
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jordana.love & www.180retreats.com
- Email: [email protected]
Image Credit:
Michi Kruger
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Check out the VoyageLA Podcast:
Episode 1 with Content Partner Lisa Taitelman, Founder of Hiking & Wellness company Find Your Trail.
