From Startup Millionaire → The Monastery → Intentional Co-Living: The Leo Widrich Story (Mo Wildman)
From Startup Millionaire → The Monastery → Intentional Co-Living: The Leo Widrich Story (Mo Wildman)
A conversation on transformation and returning to authenticity with Leo Widrich (Buffer) who now goes by Mo Wildman
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You know those people who you kind of keep tabs on in your profession?
One of those people early on in my startup journey was Leo Widrich, one of the founders of the social media company Buffer. At one point, Buffer was a darling in startup land with their great product, prolific blog, and a pioneering culture of transparency.
I remember reading about their co-founder split and kind of never heard much about Leo again. I’m not exactly sure how, but somehow I found myself on his website a few months ago and learned that he’s been on a similar journey of inner discovery the past few years.
After “making it in startup world” Leo went to live in a Buddhist monastery. In this conversation, we talk about his experience going from the frenetic world of startups to living a monastic lifestyle. He shares a lot about the challenging experience of sitting with his unconscious inner material which I related to immensely.
Post monastery life, he found himself coaching startup founders who were experiencing similar challenges and dissonance that he had gone through. This article on lessons learned coaching 101+ startup founders resonates immensely.
One of the things Leo recognized in his own journey is how company building was actually an unconscious way he was trying to experience community. We talk about this recent revelation and his newest adventure which is building his intentional co-living community Wild Life Ranch in Colorado. If you’re craving an intentional community, you might want to check it out!
Other interesting talking points:
What living in a monastery is actually like
The impact of somatic therapy on his life
Why fear is such a valuable experience and how we can meet it when relating to others
His vision and motivation for the co-living ranch
The meditation experience that caused him to change his name from Leo to Mo Wildman
Leo is pretty young but has lived a very interesting life. I found this to be a fascinating and fun conversation!
Enjoy,
-Scott
If you liked reading or listening to this, feel free to click the ❤️ or 🔄 button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack 🙏
Resources:
Good links. Hero’s journey. Sometimes we don’t physically have to leave to have that experience; we can spiritually or emotionally leave, a dark night of the soul, to come back into this reality with the new perspective.