Jonathan Eppers

Jonathan is the CEO & Founder at VYBES, a premium wellness beverage made with 25mg Hemp CBD to bring calm & balance to the mind & body.

Jonathan founded VYBES in 2018 as a solution to improve one’s emotional well-being while reducing stress and anxiety.

On his morning routine.

I'm up around 6:30 am, roll out of bed around 6:45, make the bed, drink a glass of water (which I've noticed improves my mental clarity in the morning), turn on some classical music and hop in the shower.

I rarely check my phone until I'm dressed.

I like to use the time to get ready in the morning to be inside my head without any distractions from my phone. A form of meditation I guess.

On working through depression.

Before VYBES, I was running a tech startup called RadPad. RadPad was nearly wiped off the face of the planet by Craigslist, who sued us for a variety of things. The lawsuit nearly killed the company and me in the process.

I've never experienced anything like it. It brought me to a pretty severe depression, caused by the mental trauma of nearly losing the company.

We sold RadPad, but only after one of the most difficult years of my life.

I was drained, lost, and confused. I was mad, angry, and hopeless. 

It wasn't until a few months after separating myself from this experience I began to process how traumatic the event had been on my well-being.

On his life’s motto.

If you don't love yourself, how the hell you gonna love somebody else?

I didn't come up with that. RuPaul did, but it's so true.

On discovering CBD.

Stress and anxiety have a very profound impact on one's overall well-being and mental health. If left unchecked, stress and anxiety can cause pretty significant damage to our mind and body.

For me, one of the only things that actually worked, outside of arranging my life to be as stress-less as possible after RadPad ended, was CBD. 

Ironically, CBD not only helped calm my nerves and anxieties, but it also gave me a purpose again through VYBES. 

It's now become my mission to share CBD through VYBES, in hopes CBD can also help others who are seeking balance from the daily ups-and-downs of life.

On maintaining presence.

We live in a fast-paced world. We're bombarded with information and distractions all day long, not all of it so positive. 

It's hard to stop and just be present when your mind doesn't get a moment to take a break. I've struggled with this my whole life.

I think we're all searching for balance in our own lives and unfortunately there are very few things available to people that are both natural and which actually work.

I believe CBD is one of these rare wellness things that can really help people feel better emotionally and because it's in a beverage, is easy to integrate into one's life.

CBD is not the end all be all, but it can play an especially important role in our well-being.

On reading as meditation.

I've stopped reading most online news and replaced that time with books. Real, physical, hardcover books.

I predominately read about history and people. Reading books is meditative for me and I've found I retain a lot more information and reading actually improves my mood.

I'm currently reading 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari, who also wrote my favorite book, Sapiens. I wish more people would go back to reading books.

On winding down before bed.

I rarely answer emails after 8 pm. I drink a VYBES around 9, put on sweats around 10ish and read for about an hour.

I believe seven to eight hours is incredibly important. We've only got one body and it's important to treat it well. Otherwise, what's the point?