046 - Melissa Urban
“The more I use my voice, the more powerful I feel.”
For Episode 046 Jason and Emily have a deep and far-ranging conversation with Melissa Urban: Whole30 Co-Founder and CEO, recovered addict, New York Times best-selling author, mother, podcast host, nature churchgoer, and rucker. From a “good kid” in New Hampshire through trauma, addiction, recovery and now an entrepreneur with a large platform and living a life of a “healthy person with healthy habits,” Melissa has eschewed perfectionism in pursuit of finding the light. And yet still has a “go hard” streak.
Melissa talks about growing up in a huge, tight-knit Catholic-Portuguese family where “if you didn’t talk about it, it didn’t happen.” With hard vulnerability she shares about her sexual assault at 16 and how not talking about it not only didn’t make it go away but led to her drug addiction. She now, after years of self-work and recovery, accepts that trauma will never be “done.”
An introvert who “liked books more than people” growing up, Melissa has dedicated her life to habit research and the reset offered by the Whole30 program she developed. She shares some of the lessons she has learned as a somewhat-reluctant business owner and dedicated community builder who tries to make Whole30 accessible to as many as who want to do it. She talks about what it is like to be the face of a brand, the challenges of building community particularly in online spaces, and how she and Whole30 have made decisions about the brand. A former crossfitter and student at Gym Jones who is an avid hiker (her church) with her dog Henry, through Michael Easter’s The Comfort Crisis she found rucking and talks about what being that kind of “badass” has brought to her life.
Through years of therapy and learning to set boundaries, her recovery and decision to change everything in her life, overall Melissa shares how she found grace and empathy for her younger self -- and the strength in softness.
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