At Workup, we’re always fascinated by the unique wellness philosophies of visionary leaders, especially those working at the intersection of health, purpose,and performance. Few people embody that blend like Sean Hoess, the Founder & CEO of Eudēmonia Summit, a gathering of luminaries exploring the future of physical health, mental wellbeing and longevity. As the co-founder of Wanderlust Festival, Sean’s been shaping the wellness landscape for over a decade.
We caught up with Sean to learn how he navigates the tension between leading a startup and living a high-performance lifestyle—and how tennis, cooking and a small New Hampshire farm are helping him stay grounded.
🧘♂️ Q&A with Sean Hoess
What do you do for a living, and what keeps you inspired outside of work?
I’m the Founder & CEO of Eudēmonia Summit, held each November in West Palm Beach. Before that, I co-founded Wanderlust Festival, the OG health and wellness festival. I live in the woods of New Hampshire with my wife Karina (who’s also our head of programming), two kids and a sausage dog. I’m obsessed with tennis, love to ski and I’ve recently gotten into mountain biking. Most of my time—even my downtime—is steeped in health and wellness. It’s both my work and my passion.
What role does wellness play in your life?
Health and wellness is my work, which presents some unique challenges. The biggest one is the conflict between the need for sustained hard work — we’re a startup, after all — and the knowledge that my health and well-being depends on respecting the protocols that I spend my professional life advancing: sound sleep, proper nutrition, exercise, time outdoors, mindfulness practice, digital hygiene, investing in personal relationships, etc. I don’t always hit the perfect balance, but I continue to try.
What does your personal health protocol look like?
The things I’m most successful at key off of my passions. I’m obsessed with tennis and play hard 3-4 times per week. I find it to be an incredible workout but also a great stress reliever — a form of mindfulness practice in that the demands of the game ( presence in the moment, flow, release of negative thoughts, equanimity) mirror the tools of meditation practice.
I also am the primary cook for the entire family, and its something I generally look forward to every day. First, it forces me to knock off by 6 to prepare a fresh meal, and the creativity involved — scrounging through the fridge for the things that need to be eaten, figuring out how to combine them into something healthy & delicious that also might not receive a “yuck!” from my kids — is a great way to unwind after the day. And then cooking itself, a ballet of multitasking and time management, really works well with my neurological makeup. And finally, we always eat as a family, so it’s always some quality time with my wife and kids.
I have a minor supplement regimen. I wear an Oura and Whoop for sleep and general health tracking. I follow a sporadic meditation practice, spend lots of time outside (yardwork, mostly) — but for some reason, all those things feel relatively minor compared to my tennis and cooking regimens.
What’s your advice to someone just starting out on their health journey?
Start somewhere. If I reflect back, each year of my life from around 30 years old to now has represented a gradual shedding of things that were bad for me, and a gradual adoption of things that were good, or at least better for me. There’s no reason to feel pressure to do it all.
The other advice is to do the simple things first. Eat fresh, whole foods. Get some sleep. Get outside and take a walk. Call your best friend or, better, meet them for dinner. If you’re looking to optimize performance from an excellent to elite level, these steps can get quite complex. But if you’re looking to go from unhealthy to sound health, the basics are not complicated.
The term health stack actually is a good mental map for it — the bottom of the stack, the foundation, is basics like food, sleep, and exercise. You can stack up from there if you want, but the benefits will be small and at best incremental.
What’s something unexpected about you?
I co-founded a festival series known as the mecca of yoga, and have never been able to get into yoga. I am a total wuss about cold therapy. I am truly excited when my 11 year old son asks me to play D&D or Pokemon with him. I love to chop wood — split 4 cords last year — and often think about the Buddhist koan “chop wood, carry water’ while doing it.
🧬 Sean’s Health Stack
We asked Sean to share the tools, supplements and routines he swears by to keep himself thriving:
1. AG1
🟢 Daily Ritual
As a busy (and lazy) person, I love the fact that you can get a good solid supplement stack, plus probiotics and some greens, in a single product. I also love that it’s made in NZ. Kiwis are great, but more importantly, Australia and NZ have some of the highest standards for supplement testing and purity you’ll find anywhere in the world.
2. Oura + Whoop
⌚ Daily / All Day
Yes, I wear both. Oura is better for sleep tracking; Whoop excels at fitness data. Comparing the two is a nerdy but insightful way to gauge performance and HRV trends.
3. Hyperice Recovery Tools
🦵 Post-Tennis Recovery
I use their percussion gun, leg compression boots, and contrast knee therapy set—especially important for managing a degenerative meniscus injury from years of hard tennis. They’re not just helpful—they’re necessary.
4. Food & Local CSA + NYT Cooking App
🍽️ Essential & Joyful
Food is #1. The NYT Cooking app sparks creativity and keeps healthy meals exciting. My local CSA provides year-round greens from greenhouses in snowy NH—pure magic.
📲 Follow Sean
• YouTube
• Website
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