About John

John Downs is an entrepreneur, investor, and advisor within the cannabis and psychedelic industries, and a peak performance and mindset coach helping entrepreneurs, founders, executives, and creative high-achievers transform and increase performance, ease suffering, and create lasting fulfillment by embodying their true purpose.  

A devoted yogi and student of mindfulness since 2006, he discovered plant medicine in 2015 and began his own personal healing journey incorporating psychotherapy, men’s work, microdosing, embodiment practices, and the deep study of philosophy, archetypes, and the neurobiology of optimal states of consciousness (“Flow”).

With wisdom acquired from his own personal development work and diverse professional experience, his greatest passion is empowering people to access Flow to enable peak performance, increase motivation, productivity, creativity, and overall life satisfaction.

I understand and empathize with the unique challenges facing entrepreneurs and creative high-achievers. I spent years struggling to reconcile my transitory external successes with a persistent internal belief that it was never enough. By “doing the work” myself, my suffering has given way to meaning. I’ve become more effective and engaged in all areas of my life, and I am living my life’s purpose: To advance human consciousness by empowering people and organizations to pursue their highest purpose.

I serve my purpose by offering these services. My clients are ready to level up; serious about improving and mastering their professional performance, breaking through their limiting personal beliefs, and pushing themselves to the edge of their abilities - where true growth occurs.

FULL BIO

I was raised by a single mother in a small town in southwest Missouri in a working-class family. My father died in a car accident one month before my fourth birthday. She remarried when I was 12 and I have two younger sisters and a younger brother. We didn’t have much money, but my mother and step-father worked hard and sacrificed to ensure we always had food on the table. Our house was full of love.  

I walked-on to the football team of a small local college after graduating from high school and quickly earned an athletic scholarship. Despite a 4.0 GPA, I left school halfway through my sophomore year, injured and disillusioned. I joined MCI WorldCom as a telemarketer and immediately became a top-performing sales rep. After six months working the phones, I became the youngest person ever promoted to Sales Manager for a then-Fortune 50 company. Managing a team of 20 sales reps, I won multiple company-wide awards for excellence.  

Brimming with confidence and ready to take on the world, at 22 years old I left MCI and moved to Southern California, where I immediately witnessed the bursting of the dot-com bubble first-hand as a tech-industry headhunter. Humbled, I returned to school, decided to restart my football career for a local junior college, simultaneously working 50+ hour weeks as a personal trainer and bouncer. My play earned me a scholarship to the University of California-Davis, where I graduated with a degree in History and a minor in Political Science in March 2004.

I’ve had a front-row seat for the bursting of the late 90’s telecom (MCI WorldCom), the dot-com (tech headhunter), and the housing bubbles (as owner of a mortgage brokerage). And, throughout the global credit crisis, I advised on over $130 million in assets as an investment advisor for Peter Schiff’s Euro Pacific Capital (from 2008-2013). My experiences have blessed me with a unique perspective on the markets, investing, entrepreneurship, psychology, and most importantly, resilience. 

I’ve focused on building the legal cannabis industry since 2015. I’ve been Managing Director of an investment holding company, launched a cannabis contract manufacturer, been voted a “top 3 mentor” and served as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at a cannabis business accelerator, was the Director of Business Development for the largest investor network in the industry, and am a founding shareholder and Executive Vice President of the first and only US company to have a CBD processing license in China. 

I currently serve as an advisor to a number of cannabis companies, previously sat on the California Cannabis Industry Association’s (CCIA) Legislative and Manufacturing subcommittees, and was a Founding Board Member of the Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA). 

I have completed The Flow Research Collective’s Zero to Dangerous and Trainer Accelerator programs for learning and coaching Flow states. I have completed the Co-Active Coaching Institute (CTI) Coaching Fundamentals course and I am pursuing a coaching certification via The Human Performance Institute (March 2022). I am a 200-hour certified yoga instructor and enthusiastic meditator.  I hold FINRA Series 7, 63, and 24 securities licenses. 

I love hot yoga, playing golf, traveling, and nearly any outdoor fitness activity. I am a Burner and member of the Fit For Service community. I am an avid non-fiction reader and student of personal and professional development with an affinity for exploring universal philosophical truths, promoting free markets, supporting cognitive liberty, and indulging in ice cream.