Zak Williams

Zak, son of late actor Robin Williams, is the Co-Founder and CEO at PYM, a mental wellness company rooted in the belief that there is a world where someone can be the best version of themselves simply by establishing easy daily rituals that help support their mind and overall wellbeing.

On his morning routine.

I’m usually up around 6:30 AM on weekdays so I can make breakfast and coffee with my wife Olivia and son Mickey. On weekends, I’ll sleep in until about 7. 

If I’m not hanging with my son, I kick off the morning with light work, typically reviewing site metrics, organizing email, and catching up on any market updates and news.

I really try to focus on my family until about 8 AM when I really dive in.

On triaging workflows.

While I start my day with strict intentions and focused priorities, at this stage most mornings quickly devolve into triaging the most pressing issues of the day if I’m being completely honest.

Our focus at PYM right now is integration and optimization, be it with suppliers, third-party logistics partners, Amazon, or new distributors.

That often involves fulfilling orders, coordinating with team members, and establishing systems-based flows. 

It’s a really interesting period for me and the company in that I’m both managing a high-growth environment, scaling the team, and exploring new product formulations and consumer experiences while our company culture and values are starting to coalesce.

On movement and workouts.

I’ve always been a huge walker. 

It’s my most consistent form of daily movement, whether that’s taking walking calls around my neighborhood or blocking time to sit with my thoughts and clear my head between meetings.

I love hitting the gym, but during quarantine, I haven’t shifted my rituals to account for the routines that I would otherwise do there.

Getting back to the gym is something I’m really looking forward to.

On supplements and nutrition.

I take caffeine in the mornings with a hard cutoff at 10 AM. 

I also take PYM, the amino acid formula that my company sells. It doesn’t pair well with caffeine, so I’ll start off with caffeine and then switch to PYM.

I’m also currently taking Zembrin and Honokiol for optimizing mood, NAD+ for metabolic support, and pterostilbene for anti-inflammatory benefits.

I’ve always liked to keep my breakfasts light, which generally means toast or oatmeal. I’ll also eat whatever my son doesn’t eat when we cook breakfast for him. Lunch is either very late or non-existent, but dinner is my vice. I love a proper dinner plus some high-quality ice cream a few times a week.

That’s my sweet tooth kicking in. I’m finding the vegan Cocabella Creamery to be my current favorite. I also love Fatamorgana Gelato.

In terms of nutrition, I’ll switch to keto occasionally and will go vegan for a month a year. I’m still not sold on keto, however.

It’s great for losing weight and clarity of mind, but it makes me jumpy if I spend more than a week on the regimen.

My main thing is staying away from processed foods and eating meat in moderation.

On stress and recovery.

On stressful days, I find the 12-step recovery method to be quite helpful for me personally. In particular, the gratitude and mindfulness exercises help me ground myself in the positives.

I’ll be sober for four years in June.

In that past, I leaned on alcohol to self-medicate for anxiety, but I’ve pretty much stopped all stimulant supplementation.

I don’t take anything besides mood support and a few other supplements. Occasionally I’ll take Benadryl if I’m behind on sleep.

If you’re anxious or stressed about work, it’s so easy to forget all the good things that could potentially be going on with family, friends, and colleagues.

Not all of life is work.

Gratitude really helps me refocus and dive back into what’s important to get done that day, instead of constantly worrying about company metrics that I can’t affect in real-time.

On his evening routine.

Before calling it a day, I’ll QA our site and internal processes to make sure everything is in order and running smoothly. 

I’m also an avid consumer of news, and oftentimes find myself drawn down a TikTok blackhole for 30 minutes before I pull myself out!

After that social session, I’ll turn it off for the night.

Finally, I’m in bed and falling asleep around 10:30.