Hoda Kotb on wellness company Joy 101 and starting over at 60

USA Today

3 days ago

Hoda Kotb on wellness company Joy 101 and starting over at 60
A week before Hoda Kotb debuts her wellness company, Joy 101, she's in a haze of unrelenting meetings to secure sponsors, experts and more employees.
'It's stuff you don't think about. 'Who's going to do the frequently asked questions?'' Kotb, 60, says. 'All this stuff that goes into websites and apps and events.'
Ahead of her company's launch on May 28 she was 'nervous' but 'ready.'
'I'm hopeful, and I'm also proud that we did something,' she says. 'We're not just talking about it. Something's going to be put out into the world. Is it going to be perfect? I doubt it, but it's going to be really good.'
Kotb departed her 'Today' anchor chair on Jan. 10, the same day she bid adieu to 'Today with Hoda & Jenna,' culminations of her decades-long NBC career which began in 1998 at 'Dateline.' Craig Melvin replaced Kotb on NBC's morning news program while Jenna Bush Hager has entertained a revolving door of celebrity guests on 'Today with Jenna & Friends.'
Kotb revealed in an interview at the start of a wellness weekend she hosted with 'Today' in October that a whisper nudged her to leave her former posts. 'In different forms, it was saying, 'You're an adventurer,'' she said, adding that she also longed for more time with daughters, Haley Joy, 8, and Hope Catherine, 6. 'It was saying, 'What's this next chapter? It was (asking), have you done it all?''
Kotb first mentioned a desire to get into the wellness space when we'd connected in March of 2024 to talk about her children's book, 'Hope is a Rainbow.'
'I am dreaming about one day starting a kind of, sort of wellness, mind, body, spirit movement sort of thing,' she said timidly with a smile. She'd recently began a breath work practice and had an emotional breakthrough in her office the day prior.
'I laid on the ground with a breath works person on Zoom, and I was blubbering, after five minutes,' she said. 'It's just like a release.'
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After the first session daughter Haley noticed a shift and told Kotb, 'You seem different.' Kotb says, 'They were calling me 'Calm Mom' and laughing.'
Kotb says she routinely mediates in the morning and again around 2 p.m. before picking her kids up from school in her cherished minivan. She says she's gained perspective and feels more energized.
'I always was one to exercise my stress away, and that works, to a point,' Kotb says. 'But when you wake up again, the next day, there it is again. 'I got to outrun this. If I don't run, all my stress is going to come get me.' You're constantly like on the run from your stress. And then you're realizing, like, 'Well, what is it? Let's try to unload the stress.''
Hoda Kotb's journey to Joy 101: 'You can be a beginner again at 60'
An insatiable curiosity about wellness and a desire to share all she's learned motivated Kotb to start Joy 101, which offers an app and events that aim to enhance the lives of its users, with a tailor-made program. Users can preorder the app, which goes live on June 11 and costs $16.99 for a monthly subscription or $99 for the year.
'Everybody seems really tired, and everybody seems like they've got more than they can carry and there's too much on their plate and it's like, 'Not one more thing!'' Kotb says. 'That's what I even found myself (saying), like, 'There's no more room. I'm tapped out. There's not room to pile one more thing on.' This is designed to take things off your plate.'
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On the app, Kotb provides a daily dose of her optimism and wisdom and greets users with a 21-day course, in which she shares life lessons. Kotb has also curated additional research-backed classes and wellness sessions focused on topics like brain health, breath work, mindfulness, personal growth and sleep. Membership includes two livestreams per month with Kotb and her trusted wellness experts. The first occurs on June 11 with Savannah Guthrie and Bush Hager. Users are also given early access to retreats and events, which Kotb says she's really leaning into.
During October's regenerative weekend Kotb shared with attendees that before diving into wellness, she 'felt like I was carrying around a heavy backpack for so long and didn't know it.' During her journey, 'the backpack got emptied and I started feeling lighter and better.' At 60, she said, 'I feel better today than I have in decades.'
Kotb says the biggest revelation she's realized 'is that you can be a beginner again at 60.'
'It taught me that the learning process is unending, and it showed me that anyone who says they're stuck in their ways is because they're choosing to be stuck in their ways,' Kotb says. 'You can evolve; you can change. You can see the world totally differently. You could try something brand new and risky. You can say goodbye to something that was the safest and most extraordinary career in the world.'
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Maybe that feels jarring to anyone who fears change or the unknown. Kotb grew up 'in a home of optimism,' as she put it in 2024. 'When I was playing a basketball game, and we were down 5 points with 15 seconds, (my mom) believed that it was possible to win, and therefore I believed.'
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Her breast cancer diagnosis in 2007 minimized things that previously felt scary or overwhelming, and she didn't allow rejection or criticism to hijack her hope. 'I was constantly rejected,' she previously said. 'The guys didn't like me; I didn't get the job. It didn't crush me. I didn't feel devastated. I was like, 'Ohh that's how it goes but also something, I think, good will happen.'
'Stop worrying about the odds,' Kotb says. 'Stop worrying about all that stuff, because if you think about the odds, you'll do nothing, ever.'