Discovering “Wellness” in Uncertain Times – Marcus Whitney LIVE with Ashley Brooke James
This episode's guest on #MWL is Ashley Brooke James. We talk about overall health during the quarantine (including wellness vs. fitness), mental health, and what tools and resources are being utilized to maintain mental clarity. We also discuss her podcast, "You're excused."
Ashley has a passion for promoting wellness and extending this promotion to people from every experience level. Being "well" doesn't have to be stress-inducing; it should be the opposite. Finding wellness and relief through an accepting community is not only possible, but it's being done through Ashley's TRILUNA Wellness business.
Where to watch live:
https://youtube.com/marcuswhitneysvideouniverse
https://facebook.com/marcuswhitney
https://linkedin.com/in/marcuswhitney
https://twitter.com/marcuswhitney


MW
what's up what's up happy Tuesday
I was fighting non-stop with Comcast
Xfinity yesterday so I want to apologize
for anybody who tuned in and got cut off
prematurely I was able to record the
whole episode with David and I'll export
that and and get it all edited and put
up to the to the YouTube channel into
the podcast but for today I'm really
excited about my guest for today this is
someone who I first met I believe at the
36-86 entrepreneurship festival a couple
years ago and you know but when you're
on stage and you look out into a room
and you can just like see somebody who
is just kind of glowing because they're
so excited, and they feel like this
moment is really magical, and then you
know she kind of reached out to me and
and was telling me about this idea that
she had. I was like that's cool when you
go to these conferences you you see all
types of people who have ideas and then
you know similarly never do anything
with them but then I followed her online
and the growth that her and her partner
have had in their business triune and
well and this has been incredible
the attention to detail of the design is
fantastic I love it and I just loved the
message that she has so I'm really
excited to have Ashley Brooke James to
here today with me the co-founder of Triluna.
What's up Ashley how you doing?
ABJ
hi
thank you so much Marcus and I always I
always wondered if you remembered me
from that culture it's really mystical
up to you
so the vibe did you remember that it is
so great so thank you so much
MW
yeah no I
you know I remember all those things you
know I think they're important and I was
I was once that first time entrepreneur
at those conferences looking at people
that had more experience you know they
weren't like larger-than-life but when
you don't have that experience and
you're early in your journey it feels
like they're larger than life so like I
told
remember that and I and I just think you
know never forget sort of where you came
from and you know what it was like to be
early on but now you are the person on
panels you are the person talking to
other people about what it is to launch
a successful business and keep it
authentic and make the move from
corporate America to being an
entrepreneur so you're on the show to
talk about your business but I think
also the philosophy behind your business
and why it's so incredibly timely right
now right
ABJ
right right awesome so yeah
MW
Can you just give a little bit of background
on try Luna like you have a partner for
the for the listeners and the viewers
ABJ
absolutely well try wanna traveling and
wellness and events is I'm one of the
co-founders my partner Elizabeth Moore
who is watching as well we started this
as a passion project Elizabeth and I met
and our yoga teacher training and at the
time I had just left my corporate job
and I knew I wanted to open up a
wellness company and she was on the
verge of quitting her job was opening up
a wellness company and our ideas married
each other so much and so we said
instead of being competition let's be
collaborative and come together it was
really important for us also to come
together because what we didn't see was
a lot of wellness and fitness companies
doing a lot of collaborations especially
people of different races so we we were
very intentional about coming together
and making this something that people
had never experienced or saying try Luna
is a wellness and events company we have
three core services that we specialize
in movement such as yoga health coaching
and cooking classes which we combine
into comprehensive wellness workshops
curriculums and retreats for both
corporate and community organizations so
we do everything from we we like to mix
you know the Wellness with the fun like
we have an event coming up with ah've oh
this month
it's called avocados and awesome
it's a half yoga class and then we eat
food prepared from avos so a big thing
about our business is community because
we feel like community is a part of your
Wellness
MW
I think another big part of your
business is creativity you know you all
are just even the three things that you
said that you merge together and then
the way that you go about it and the way
that you communicate as a brand I mean
there's definitely a brand voice that's
very that's very consistent but to me
what I what I love when I look at your
business is how creative it feels it
feels like everything that you you and
Elizabeth have done you've like you sat
down and you like came up with it you
know I mean it's not like I don't see
you guys borrowing from other people
stuff and and I and I love the
co-creation aspect of what you do is it
the mind Magic Festival Body Magic
festival yeah you know that was a big
collaboration that you did you talked
about the collaboration you're doing
with although you know what is it about
what is it about the act of creating
that has that has allowed you to to find
this this unique Lane in the fitness
space so many so in the wellness space
sorry you know so many so many I have to
say fitness professionals like here
really call them wellness professionals
so many famous professionals are
operating inside of a certain sort of
set of confines from a business model
perspective from an engagement
perspective and you all don't have a
space per se right you don't have like
that building I think it's even like on
the bottom of your emails like no
physical location but you but you do
have this this community and it's like
this community exists digitally it
exists in person and you're creating all
these things also based on like the
moment in time I remember the messaging
that came out from you all when the
pandemic hit we all started being
locked down and it was just you were
maybe one of the first well-being
fitness organizations to to really be
able to deliver a brand new model very
quickly you know
Can you talk about like the
role of creativity in how that's, just it
appears to be fundamental to me, so I'm
just like
can you talk about that at all?
ABJ
Absolutely well before I got into this, I
come from 10 years of sales and business
development, and Elizabeth has 10 years
of marketing and branding. So all of the
beautiful things that you see
straight comes from her. She is a
creative genius on that aspect. For me, I
just have a huge imagination and I just
am always like, “what if we do this, and
this, and this.” She like agrees with it,
she's like, “yes.” But where we got this
creativity, where this stems from is when
we got into this space, we noticed that -I
mean I've been doing yoga for 10 years,
and I can walk into a yoga studio and
they say it's for beginners- and it
wasn't. And so our our idea going in was
let's go with the beginners mentality. A
lot of people are afraid of yoga because
everybody's in these pretzel moves and
standing on their heads and it scares
them. But when you mix donuts and yoga together, people are
going to show up. Or if you say we're
going to do yoga and have mimosas after,
people are gonna show up. So it was like
how do we get creative to really draw
people in where they're not so fixated
on the yoga, but more excited about the
community aspect of it right? And so we
are intentional about you know even
though our targeting. When we go out and
how we're targeting, we make sure that
our messaging -if you look at our
Instagram, you won't see a lot of
advanced yoga poses us doing all these
things because we didn't want to give up
that intimidating factor- even on my
personal page. I try to -when I'm
showcasing yoga- I try to do standard
basic moves because I think it starts
there, and I think when you get into the
advanced moves, you start to scare people
away. So it's just a lot of first liz
being a marketing and branding genius, me
having an imagination that is just over
the top, and then both both of us being
very focused and intentional about a
beginner's mind and creating a space for
people who just want to show up
as themself and try yoga for the first
time without worrying about the girl next
to her standing on her head.
MW
yeah I love that and and and I also
you're gonna find out that I've been
watching your your branding and your
communication the entire time as we keep
talking so so there there was a point in
your business there was a point in your
business where it felt like you all
really got confident in that beginner
like offering in that welcoming
disarming like offering you know did you
find as you were in the very very early
days you know like let's go back to the
first six months the first six months of
you know you trying different things did
you find people who came to you and
we're like oh my god thank you for
making something that I feel like I can
be at and not be embarrassed or because
it cuz it would seem like I have to tell
you like I'm a guy and I know that like
try Luna is very female oriented like
it's a name it's you know which is which
is great but one of the reasons why I
like it is because you know I'm one of
those people I'm one of those people who
I have lots of I have lots of things
Letta Klee where I'm strong but
flexibility is one of the things where I
really have to work at it I've gotten a
lot better but I've had to work and work
and work to be able to access some poses
that other people can just sort of jump
in and you're right like the the the way
that the yoga teacher expresses
themselves has so much impact on whether
or not I feel encouraged or supported or
I feel like you know what I'm just like
a complete failure. so I'm just wondering
both those first six months of feedback
like for you guys
ABJ
um they were
incredible I mean we were having women I
mean we were targeting different groups
that we knew that we're looking for this
I mean there was different Facebook
groups that we were in and we were like
I'm just looking for basic yoga class
that can just go to and just you know
because high yoga Power Yoga has been
advertising you didn't get a lot of
beginners or slow flows or restorative
yoga the things that slowed things down
so we were like okay we're gonna promote
this we're gonna put this out there and
then we were very intentional also about
the pictures make sure that we had women
of all races represented women are
called body types you represent it and
so when people start to see that they
show up and they see that like they look
around and notice it's not a particular
look or body type just here and it makes
them feel comfortable and our team is
our team is not allowed to talk to each
other at events it's our job to go out
and make new friends and introduce other
friends to new friends spill community
and so that that from the beginning
people are like I feel like home I feel
like this is something that you know I
was looking for and it was important
because that is losing I didn't have
that especially me when I came in there
was not a lot of black women doing yoga
oh yeah it was two other you know black
teachers that I knew of
and then for Liz you know she felt like
there was only one body type that was
being represented and so we were like I
said again intentional about creating
this environment for my marketing you
know when we talk to people making sure
that people were interacting with people
that they normally want to talk to yeah
and so that was very very important to
us when promoting and when people showed
up for us and making sure that we set
that in the example in that environment
MW
so another key theme of the trilemma
brand is this this juxtaposition of
Fitness versus wellness right you know
you all are not shy about saying go grab
you a doughnut you know what I mean like
not shy at all right and I think in this
in this moment of time you know we
talked about a little bit before the
show this is such a difficult time okay
and and it seems to keep getting more
difficult right it's like it's like it's
for us here at Nashville has started
with the tornado right and then we sort
of like won from the tornado to a week
later you know coronavirus really
setting in and then the lockdown order
and
and on and on and now you know with with
the protests and everything around
police brutality and and just the
treatment of black people in this
country period and really all over the
world what we're seeing this is a I it
feels like it's not an easy time to be
well it feels like it's not an easy time
to be well
as a leader of a community
how are you navigating that what are you
you know I feel like this would be a
time to kind of go back to basics and go
to the most simple things what are you
telling your community what are you
telling yourself and your partner and
and you know what what would you pass on
to our listeners and our viewers
ABJ
Okay, I
will first start out by saying
that at the beginning of the
quarantine, I saw -we saw,
TRILUNA saw- that there was a lot of
content being out there like don't
gain weight, don't do this, workout, make
sure you're doing all of these things.
And I feel like that that message was
completely wrong. We are in a in a period
in our lives that we are, our stress
level is at the highest of highs. People
are worried about their jobs, their
businesses, you know their children not
being in school, when they return to
school. I mean and looking good in a
bikini is the last thing that you need
to be worried about, okay. let's just keep
it 100. What we need to be focused
on right now -and it's hard because you
get all of these tools, and I think
sometimes we overthink it- we have a
workshop called meditation for stress
management, and one of them we have this
exercise called the circle of life, and
I'll make sure that I get it to you.
It is just a little check-in that you
put these dots on where you feel you’re
most filled. I mean it can be your
spiritual, your finances, you know
anything, any it has different
categories. And so the purpose of that
exercise is for people to look and see
that nothing is perfectly balanced, right.
And so it's just a reminder to you
that
it doesn't have to be this circle of
balance, but maybe you focus on if you
know your spiritual side is up right now,
maybe that's your full focus right now.
Maybe that's what you focus on, you know
everybody's travel’s down right now,
know everybody's money. But how about you
focus on those things that you know that
our filling you up. I also think
people overthink some of the things that
bring us peace and give us you know a
little decompression right
now. I think people feel like they have
to be walking, or running, or you know
working out to like feel active, but
think about all the home projects that
are going on right now, and how happy
people are and how they get lost into
those home projects. You see so many
people cooking down and trying all these
awesome meals... these are all forms of a
meditation or a sense of relief, and I
think because it doesn't come packaged
in enough “umm” we automatically think that
“I'm not doing myself service.” So I'm here
just to tell people to be more
intentional about those things that
we're doing right now, even if it's like
if you're reading your book, like reading
a book is a form of relief for you
because it takes your mind off of the
news and everything that's going on
around you. So really, the advice that I
have for people right now, the things
that are are bringing you joy right now
-whether it's cooking or reading or
whatever- like pour yourself into those
things right now. Because there's so many
distractions -we turn on the TV, we turn
on our phone- it's all these distractions
for us to be committed to what we think
is healthy right. So find those things
that are bringing you relief. Like my
house looks completely different
since the so quarantine. But I enjoy
being at home now; I have all these
different places in my home that it just
has this different feel about them. But
those things give me release, and I think
if we can be more intentional about that
-even eating meals at home with our
families more, you know having
conversations that are maybe necessarily
around
what's happening in the world- like
just having other conversations. But I
think it's really, like you said, it's
getting back to the basics of things. And
if you were a big work workout person and
you're just not feeling you know
motivated, like I told you like
I haven’t been doing a lot of yoga during
this, I'm just sorry that's not
where my headspace is. But I've been doing a
lot of walking, you know a lot of just
being outside -I love being outside- and
when I'm out there I don't even listen
to music I just take in the sounds
around me. And I just dream about the
future of TRILUNA. I think if we can be
more intentional about the things that
are bringing us relief right now and
peace, then we could be less concerned
about running these 5.2 miles
or hitting the gym to lift weights, and
things you can take that amount of
stress off of us.
MW
yeah there seems to be
a thread of acceptance right well you
know accepting ourselves for what we're
experiencing and and what we're sort of
being pulled to do and if we don't feel
like we have the energy to do something
that's okay
you know just kind of flow with that and
do the thing that you do feel like
you've got the energy to do right now
and how do you how do you define
wellness how do you define wellness you
know I feel like lots of different
people have different definitions for it
I mean do you have a definition
ABJ
I don't
have a definition but I do like to think
of I mean the the whole mind body soul
thing didn't just come out of the out of
nowhere and I think that that is our
wellness when we're taking care of our
mind or we're taking out care of our
body and we're taking care of our souls
that is wellness when we take care of
just our bodies that is just fitness
it's just one area of this three part of
taking care of yourself you have to make
sure that our minds are right I mean
whether that's through you know
meditation or whatever activity it is
but at the end of the day no greater
exercise is better than our sleep you
know we have to be able to get sleep we
have to be able to be able to rest
our bodies everybody is not meant to do
boot camps or physical things like that
but finding some form of movement air
body like I'm not a big boot camp person
or anything I'm very competitive Mike
and so is really like
MW
yeah I can tell
with your business and I can tell which
is called you know that's that's one
thing I love is that you're not afraid
to kind of call out the you know the
fitness dudes or whatever you know what
I mean like you definitely have a an
antagonist in your story you know what I
mean you have an antagonist you call
that as a gonna style which I which I
love so I could see the competitiveness
but at the same time it's like you're
competing for people to find
you're competing on behalf of other
people for them to find a true sense of
place it's like just like peace within
yourself
ABJ
right because I feel like the
world has like said all these
expectations are on us to be healthy but
healthy is just our bodies nobody's
telling you to take care of your mind
nobody is telling you to face your
feelings and sit in those and forgive
yourself for those things and be able to
move on nobody is you know all they're
so concerned about is what you put in
your mouth let's have a cheat day let's
do all of these yes I yes I challenge
some of the people in the fitness
industry some of those guys are some of
my really good friends but I would like
for them to not so wellness is sickness
so like being able to talk through why
are you telling people that they need to
do these 50 burpees like what benefit is
that gonna have to them and knowing that
everybody's body is made up different so
not everybody's gonna have the same diet
sir be able to do the same thing so I
think it is we're really big on bio
individuality and people finding what
works for them and I think when you
speak to a crowd and telling a crowd
that you don't need to be doing this you
need to be doing this you need to be
doing less you're not really finding out
individually who that person is and who
what that person needs
and I think in wellness fitness we need
to just take a step back and really look
at what we're promoting overall and if
you're promoting fitness that's
completely fine but there's other parts
of wellness that goes with that yeah you
need to be providing resources for it as
well
MW
what what is it like for people
inside of the the Tri Luna community I'm
not you know I'm a four year I get to
watch from all the digital stuff but you
know what's what's it like for for
someone who's a part of it you know and
maybe especially in this era of COVID
19 where a lot of stuff has had to
become digital like how does it how does
it operate how does it function
ABJ
so the
whole digital thing which is great well
while we were able to make that big
pivot I just wanted to put this in we
are very Elizabeth and I are very
goal-oriented we every year we come
together with our team and we lay out
our goals we have check-ins we have all
of these things and on our three year
goal plan was online curriculum because
we figured that the only way that we
were gonna be able to sell on the
corporate side is if we put together
these all microc ulam packages and you
know figure out a way to scale that up
so that was a really big part of our
business but being inside of this
community it's it's crazy because people
are like we miss you guys would miss the
message and I think we were we've been
able to create this is because we keep
it a hundred percent real we create
spaces for people to talk about their
trauma and wellness and health and how
we can better provide resources for them
to get through Elizabeth and I are very
very straightforward we're not doctors
we're not dietitians we're health
coaches we're yoga instructors you know
we're here to provide resources for you
and for you to feel comfortable and who
you are because it starts with you it
starts with you feel uncomfortable as an
individual to be able to grow in those
other areas and I just don't feel like a
lot of people are letting provider
spaces where people actually feel
comfortable
MW
Yeah, no I mean I think
especially right now, that's
a big, it's a big challenge. It is
a big challenge to to have a space where
you can be vulnerable, and I think it's
really needed right now because we're
dealing with some very sensitive
topics right now, and they are -you know
for a lot of people- they're bringing up
a lot of stuff, you know. They're bringing
up a lot of stuff. And
having that place
where you can go and you can talk and
you can let down your
guard I think is super important. There
needs to be more and more places where
where that can happen right now.
ABJ
Yeah and
I think a big another big part of that
is Elizabeth and I -and our team- we are
very transparent. We don't get on these
circles and be like, “life is great you
know everything is dadadadada,” we're like no stuff
is hard, we’re second year in business,
we're trying to stay afloat, you know
we're trying to be good wives, we're
trying to be you know friends, we're
trying to... but it's hard. Okay it's really
really hard. And I think people like to
hear that realness because, you know you
can easily get on my Instagram be like,
“oh she just has this wonderful wellness
company she does yoga, and life is great,”
but it's like nah, like that's what I
want you to see. But we just,
there's never been a point in this
business in our retreats, we -I mean
you can only imagine our retreats are
just this whole weekend of vulnerability
and everybody just pouring things- and
that's where it kind of all started,
where we learned just to show up and be
authentically ourselves. And when we've
done that and taking it into other
companies even some of our corporate
clients, we're just kind of like, “can we
be real?” And it's like, we can -the right
clients respect the fact that we're real,
and they're willing to work with us
because they've never had anything like
that-. But I can definitely tell when
we're not someone's cup
of tea because they're like, “yeah, so…”
Could you tone that whole,
you know, keeping it real thing down…
We're looking for detox teas and headstands,
it's like yeah we're not doing that.
let's talk about your podcast you're
excused I have not actually listened to
the podcast so so let's talk about what
what what you know Elizabeth about doing
on the podcast
ABJ
so the crazy thing is the
podcast was created as you as I mean as
you know my following us Elizabeth and I
have some pretty deep content on our
Instagram page we'd like to talk you'd
love to talk about what's going on in
the world
we have a passion for just everything in
the world and so we'd like to speak on
it so obviously it was only right for us
to create this space where we could talk
straight forward we do feel like at the
beginning we're a little too
straightforward so like you have people
who listen to this like maybe need to
scale him back a little bit so we were
able to talk through that but the
podcast was basically I mean we talked
everything about one of the one of our
first podcast was which will be a really
good one to listen to me now is I don't
see me and it's the story of Elizabeth
and I I coming together and how I as a
black woman didn't see anybody in the
yoga industry in Nashville went along
doing yoga and her seeing women of the
same body images and then this whole
wellness versus fitness thing again we
wanted to create a space where we could
be completely transparent on how we feel
and that is also growing a business like
the the risk that we've taken and I mean
you and I have never talked about this
but I had a corporate job that I left to
you know start this but I mean that was
a lot of risk and I'm still taking risk
and we're just very transparent about
that and you know Elizabeth and I have
grown this company organically and we
just like to share those because we feel
like our story is a part of our journey
and the more that women or men are able
to hear us
um then the more they'll understand what
trilemma is about and why it will start
it and an extension of that this year in
January we actually started our supper
clubs well we wanted to bring people in
person and have these conversations that
everybody wants to have right now we
kind of started that back in January we
wanted to create spaces where people
could have these hard conversations you
know so when it came to something like
this Lorelai it yeah yeah yeah yeah and
so yeah that the podcast was really
about creating the space where we could
be really transparent and then we were
like we want to take this really in the
national community and how do we do this
obviously a part of our services are
cooking and we have chefs on the team
and we wanted to highlight a lot of
local shifts that are out there doing a
lot of things so we created our separate
clubs to be able to do that so the cook
the the podcast the I would say the
supper clubs are your in person podcast
with some wonderful guests that we have
which we have to get you on earth
MW
I
would I would love to come and do one
actually I I just you know I just want
to say I'm such a huge fan of what you
and Elizabeth have have put together
this is this is kind of like what I most
care about right what I most care about
is people being brave taking the big
risks of leaving the the cushy corporate
job and you know the reward that they
get from that is their voice you know
their full complete authentic voice that
is that is so needed in the world and
you find out it's like you know you
create something like what you've
created and there's a whole community of
people that had you not done it would be
out there by themselves right and so I
just want to thank you for for doing
that for for those people because you
know we we need more healthy people out
here you know what I mean we need more
well people out here the challenges we
have in this world right now are going
to require a my podcast with Daniel
Magee is like I love what she said you
know we need multiple leaders we're not
going to solve this by having one or two
or three liters
we need a ton of leaders because the
problems are everywhere you know and we
need brave courageous healthy people to
be able to to step up and and sort of
tackle those problems and they could be
just problems like in their neighborhood
just on their block you know what I mean
but we need leaders on every block right
now and so you know the work that you're
doing is helping to make a community of
people that could really be impactful in
my life and ways I don't know already
know so you know thank you for doing
that continue to do that we'll have to
have to keep you you know checking back
in with the show I have to get Elizabeth
on here to get her perspective
everything
ABJ
absolutely I mean she would
love to I mean thank you Marcus I mean
when I think of black entrepreneurs in
Nashville that are doing great things
you were one of the first person that
found that about like you were watching
me I was watching you and the
opportunity that we had to speak on a
panel that was like really big for me I
was so I just thank you for allowing me
the space to come on here and just share
my story shared the triluminos story and
yeah anytime you want to Lizbeth or
myself for us together to come back we
definitely will so thank you for
creating this space for me today
MW
absolutely awesome y'all you definitely
have to follow Ashley you need to follow
try Luna for sure but definitely go
follow Ashley on Facebook try Luna
wellness on Instagram AB the yogi with
some underscores and then try Luna
wellness.com you got to sign up for
their email list it's fantastic and and
as you already saw they have a great
podcast to your excuse go check that out
wherever you get podcasts my book create
and orchestrate coming out June 30th
it's just two weeks from today's crazy I
think I get my first copy in the mail
today I'm really excited about it so
anyway that is coming in two weeks and I
can't wait to get that out into the
world and in your hands the podcast mark
is Whitney's audio universe on every
podcast platform possible it's out there
just go subscribe and follow me at
Marcus Whitney basically everywhere
that's it the internet actually
cooperated today thank you very much
Xfinity I don't have to scream at you
for the next three hours
and we will be back on Thursday I'm
taking a break tomorrow because I'm
doing a special session with the folks
at Nexus summit talking about the big
healthcare note that I wrote last week
so I'm off I'm off tomorrow but I'm back
on Thursday and Friday with another
episode of Marcus wouldn't alive until
then peace