The Healing Powers of Nature: Jennifer Walsh on Biophilic Design, Beauty, and Neuroscience

This week on Wonder Boldly, host Christine Santos sits down with Jennifer Walsh, a visionary entrepreneur whose work at the intersection of beauty, nature, and neuroscience has inspired global audiences. With nearly 30 years of experience, Jennifer shares insights into her groundbreaking work in biophilic design and the profound impact beauty and nature have on our health. She explains the importance of neuroaesthetics, the intersection of neuroscience, beauty, nature, art, and music, as we unlock powerful insights about our emotional landscapes and how deeply connected we are to the spaces we inhabit.

Episode Highlights:

• Jennifer’s innovative career, including the creation of Beauty Bar and Walk with Walsh.
• How biophilic design integrates nature into personal and professional spaces to enhance well-being.
• The brain’s constant processing of environmental cues and how understanding this can lead to personal well-being
• Practical ways to incorporate beauty and nature into everyday life for better health and reduced stress.

About Jennifer:
Jennifer Walsh is a trailblazing entrepreneur, speaker, and advocate for biophilic design and neuroaesthetics. Through her work with organizations worldwide, she educates on the healing power of nature into everyday environments, fostering better health, productivity, and creativity.

Connect with Jennifer Walsh:

• Website: https://www.walkwithwalsh.com/
• Website: https://www.lostartofbeinghuman.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejenniferwalsh/
• Podcast: Biophilic Solutions - https://www.walkwithwalsh.com/podcast
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejenniferwalsh/

If you’re ready to explore how beauty and nature can transform your life, listen in and learn how Jennifer’s vision is creating a healthier, more connected world.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Christine Santos: Hello, hello.

Jennifer Walsh is an acclaimed entrepreneur, speaker, author, and media figure who has spent almost 30 years working at the intersection of beauty, retail, and fashion. nature and neuroscience. She pioneered America's first experiential, experiential, experience, experiential retail brand Beauty Bar in the 1990s integrating biophilic wisdom long before mainstream.

And the very first omni channel beauty brand in the United States, her trail, Her trailblazing brand earned her Her trailbla Brr. Her trailblazing brand earned her regard as a beauty futurist. She and her team created the very first chain of open air stores. Products for the first time were not behind glass enclosures.

They enclosed, they launched the concept of curbside service for retail in 2006. Beauty Bar was also first to market. With a dedicated men's skincare department in store and online. That business ultimately bought by Amazon in 2011. After the sale, Jennifer went on to create two more CPG brands before launching walk with Walsh in 2016.

That same year. She created her wellness walks to get more people outdoors and to educate the health benefits of time spent outside. Jennifer now leads her walks around the globe for corporate clients, brand activations, hotel groups, schools, and more.

Schools and more. Schools and more. As a university faculty advisor at UPenn and Harvard researching biophilia and biophilia's impact on brain health and performance, Jennifer guides organizations globally on bio, globally on biophilic design and nature based solutions. She has helped brands in the United States and abroad, create holistic biophilic brick and mortar locations, programs and brands.

Jennifer is a lifelong marathoner and triathlete. Jennifer is a lifelong marathon runner and triathlete. Welcome to the podcast so much, Jen. Thank you for being here.[00:06:40] 

[00:07:58] Jennifer Walsh: Okay. Hi. Hi. 

[00:08:00] Christine Santos: It's so nice to meet you. 

[00:08:03] Jennifer Walsh: Nice to meet you too. Finally, after all this time. 

[00:08:06] Christine Santos: I know, right? Thank you so much for doing this. 

[00:08:10] Jennifer Walsh: No, are you kidding? I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled. So it's just nice to see your face. Yeah, 

[00:08:15] Christine Santos: same. 

[00:08:16] Jennifer Walsh: In real time. 

[00:08:17] Christine Santos: I know. Are you in the city? Are you in New York? 

[00:08:20] Jennifer Walsh: I am the city. Um, my apartment is totally trashed because I've, I'm packing for Florida and I'm leaving first thing tomorrow morning and I just have boxes everywhere.

Everywhere. How long are you going for? Um, I'm going for three weeks. 

[00:08:36] Christine Santos: Okay. 

[00:08:37] Jennifer Walsh: Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited. 

[00:08:39] Christine Santos: Good. 

[00:08:40] Jennifer Walsh: Yeah, I was, 

[00:08:43] Christine Santos: um, we host everything. So yeah, my husband, um, does all the cooking, does all the shopping. So I'm very spoiled. I do all the cleaning. So we're a good team. 

[00:08:57] Jennifer Walsh: Perfect. That's perfect. 

[00:08:59] Christine Santos: Yeah. And now are you going to be with your parents and your sister or.

Yeah. 

[00:09:04] Jennifer Walsh: Yes. I go down and spend the Christmas always with my parents and my sisters. And I used to live down there for 15 years, so I have a lot of friends. So I can't wait to see just, it's been a year since I've been down there. 

[00:09:17] Christine Santos: Oh wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I was just listening this morning to your latest podcast episode and, uh, on the books.

[00:09:28] Jennifer Walsh: Oh yeah. 

[00:09:29] Christine Santos: Yeah. 

[00:09:30] Jennifer Walsh: I know. Thank you for listening. Yeah. I'm excited. We always love to our holiday book guide. It's funny cause I have like two of them right in front of me right now. 

[00:09:39] Christine Santos: Oh cool. I'm looking. So I went to the anyways, the one they're, they're all so good. The gentleman who I can't pull his name forward right now, but in the museum.

[00:09:51] Jennifer Walsh: Oh, yeah. It's Patrick Ringling. 

[00:09:55] Christine Santos: Okay. Yeah. 

[00:09:56] Jennifer Walsh: All the beauty in the world. 

[00:09:58] Christine Santos: Yeah. So I want to grab that one. I want to grab the other one. I was on the website. Your website there. Hold on. Uh. Becoming human. Human. 

[00:10:10] Jennifer Walsh: Oh, yeah. Knowing. 

[00:10:12] Christine Santos: Yeah. Monica 

[00:10:13] Jennifer Walsh: talked about that one. 

[00:10:14] Christine Santos: Yeah. So, anyways, all good. Oh, thanks. I get all so inspired.

I'm like, oh. Me 

[00:10:20] Jennifer Walsh: too. I mean, the amount of books I have are just, it's, it's all good. 

[00:10:25] Christine Santos: Well, you know what I was thinking is, I was thinking, I need to start in my community, like, a, not a book club, sure a book club, but like, we get together and just read. Because you know what, I don't know, and I know this is my own issue, I don't know how you have to make the time, I can never seem to feel comfortable making the time to read.

Like, I'm like, I should be doing this, I should be doing, you know what I mean? So if I had community, and we're like, we're just gonna read. In silence, we'll read together. 

[00:10:55] Jennifer Walsh: Absolutely, absolutely. I try to bring like a small book like this I can throw in my bag. Anywhere waiting for an appointment or if I'm on the subway and I don't feel like there's someone that's going to kill me.

I, it sounds terrible, but it's true.

[00:11:16] Christine Santos: So funny you said that because my daughter is in her first year at the university of new Haven in Connecticut. Yeah. And she. Has been in the city a few times, a handful yesterday on school trips. But yesterday she went for the first time, in my opinion, on her own with two girlfriends. And I just put on my blinders.

It was like, she's going to be okay. And I get a message from her this morning and she's like, I'm so proud of myself. I navigated the subway twice for us. Like thinking good for you. And I'm glad we didn't talk because I would have been a 

[00:11:56] Jennifer Walsh: wreck. That is, it's a, it's an interesting time. It's an interesting time.

[00:12:03] Christine Santos: Really? Yeah. 

[00:12:05] Jennifer Walsh: Yeah. It's weird. It's so weird. 

[00:12:07] Christine Santos: Tell me, say more. 

[00:12:09] Jennifer Walsh: It just feels, it doesn't feel the same anymore. And I'm from here. 

[00:12:12] Christine Santos: Yeah. 

[00:12:13] Jennifer Walsh: It's so, it's, it's hard to say that. And everyone's still talking. I know more and more people leaving than that, that are coming, everyone, everyone that I know is gone. All my friends, all of them, every single one of them are gone.

So it's been really, it's been a hard time since COVID because people keep leaving and they're not just leaving. It's like, and it's in every year. I'm like, wait, no, not, not you too. No, not you too. No. Just like going to New Jersey or Connecticut or the Hudson Valley or their move, or some are like moving really far, you know, Seattle to Dallas, to Portland, Maine, to Florida, Delaware.

[00:12:53] Christine Santos: And what would you say is the common thread? Like why? 

[00:12:56] Jennifer Walsh: It was, it was beginning, it started with COVID, and now since everyone is still leaving, it's just like, well, everyone's leaving, so why be here? Yeah. 

[00:13:06] Christine Santos: Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. 

[00:13:08] Jennifer Walsh: Yeah, it's weird. It's weird. It's so, it's getting more and more expensive. It's just, it's weird.

It's just, it's just an interesting time here. It's a really interesting time. I was at a dinner last night with this [00:13:20] guy who's big guy in a hotel world. But he said, you know, he's like between us, no one will ever tell you. You can't tell, you can't tell anyone how different it is because people are like, no, you can't say that.

It's not it, but everyone knows it just, unless you're 20 something. If you're like 25, like, yeah, this is great, but yeah. Uh, otherwise I've been here for a while. It just feels different. Are you 

[00:13:45] Christine Santos: staying as far as you know, 

[00:13:47] Jennifer Walsh: as far as I know, for now. Yeah. 

[00:13:50] Christine Santos: Yeah. 

[00:13:52] Jennifer Walsh: Well, thank 

[00:13:52] Christine Santos: you so much for doing this and I, and I pre recorded your bio because I'm like, I'm going to mess this up and I'm going to try it.

I 

[00:14:02] Jennifer Walsh: had to go through all of it. I've already been like, you say whatever you want. 

[00:14:07] Christine Santos: Um, but anyways, before I do that, so just amazing. And I need just a bit of education. Well, I need a lot of education, but for right this second, just a bit of education on, I'm so embarrassed. I was going to look it up and I didn't.

So can you tell me, so it says Jennifer went on to create two more CPG brands. What were they? 

[00:14:27] Jennifer Walsh: So I had Beauty Bars. My first one. 

[00:14:30] Christine Santos: Yeah. 

[00:14:31] Jennifer Walsh: Um, and then I created a company called Pride and Glory. So Pride and Glory was a bath and body care line for the collegiate. And then I created a company called, um, A State of Energy, which was a crystal company.

So we actually sold 

[00:14:46] Christine Santos: crystals. 

[00:14:47] Jennifer Walsh: Yeah. 

[00:14:48] Christine Santos: Cool. 

[00:14:49] Jennifer Walsh: Yeah. 

[00:14:50] Christine Santos: And so, are those still in existence? No. 

[00:14:56] Jennifer Walsh: No. Well, I don't think so. I don't think Pride and Glory is. Okay. And we just kind of, during COVID, we put the, the Crystal Company to, we just, my business partner, he wanted to go to Pennsylvania and he wanted to do more things there.

I'm like, you can have it. It's all yours. He's free to take it. 

[00:15:13] Christine Santos: Oh, okay. Nice. All right. So I just want to have a conversation like just, yeah, just a conversation. I think a lot of education probably, I'll probably ask you a lot of like, what is biophilic design? You know, that type of thing. Um, and we'll just go from there.

Okay. Work for you. 

[00:15:34] Jennifer Walsh: Works for me. 

[00:15:34] Christine Santos: Alrighty. Let's see if I can do this. 

[00:15:37] Jennifer Walsh: I get it. I totally get it. 

[00:15:40] Christine Santos: Okay.

Hold on. I have to think for a second. Okay. 

Hello. Hello. Hello. And welcome to another episode of Wonder Boldly. Today we have with us Jennifer Walsh, who is an acclaimed entrepreneur, speaker, author and media figure. who has spent almost 30 years working at the intersection of beauty, retail, nature, and neuroscience.

She pioneered America's first experiential retail brand, Beauty Bar, in the 1990s, integrating biophilic wisdom long before mainstream and the very first omnichannel beauty brand in the United States. Her trailblazing brand earned her regard as a beauty futurist. She and her team created the very first chain of open air stores.

Products for the first time were not behind glass enclosures. They launched the concept of curbside service for retail in 2006. Beauty Bar was also first to market with a dedicated men's skincare department in store and online. that business was ultimately bought by Amazon in 2011.

After the sale, Jennifer went on to create two more CPG brands before launching Walk with Walsh. In 2016, that same year, she created her wellness walks to get more people outdoors and to educate those on the health benefits of time spent outside. Jennifer now leads her walks around the globe for corporate clients.

Brand activists, hotel groups, schools, and more. As a university faculty advisor at UPenn and Harvard researching biophilia's impact on brain health and performance, Jennifer guides organizations globally on biophilic design and nature based solutions. She has helped brands in the United States and abroad create holistic, biophilic, Brick and mortar locations, programs, and brands.

Jennifer is a lifelong marathon runner and triathlete. Wow. I have so much to say about all of that and so many questions, but I had to do that because it's just, it's so beautiful. It's just so beautiful and so amazing. And I feel so honored to have you on the podcast. Thank you so much for being here, Jen.

[00:18:15] Jennifer Walsh: Thank you for all of that. And thank you for having me. I'm honored to be on your show. So I'm thrilled. I've loved following you on social media and just looking what you put out into the world and your conversations and your podcast. So thanks for having me. 

[00:18:28] Christine Santos: Thank you so much. And I have to say I smiled when I was going through that because Walk with Walsh, I think is how I first started diving in and then one of my clients had you on her podcast and I'm like, I got to have her on.

I got to have her on. And I remember on that podcast, you said, and I think I messaged you. You said, let your kids play in the dirt. And I thought, oh, my daughter was already grown. not grown, but she's 17. not a kid playing in the dirt anymore. And I'm like, oh, I wish I had known that earlier.

I was that mother, like cleaning the hands, you know, all the things. 

[00:19:06] Jennifer Walsh: Absolutely. I understand that. I have my step son when he was in, when he was a high school, I was just like always dirty and I would always try and say, come on, clean up. But he never did. 

[00:19:15] Christine Santos: So let's start there.

Let's talk about biophilic design and the importance of nature, not only for physical well being, but also mental well being. 

[00:19:27] Jennifer Walsh: Yeah, it's interesting because You know, I've never been taught about nature as we grew up. We never really spoke about it because we were always outside.

I mean, as kids, I'm a Gen Xer. So as kids, it was always you're outside until it got dark and then you come in. And that was kind of, your days were spent that way. But it really hasn't been until the past 20 years that we've really started that great migration indoors. And we've separated ourselves so much so from nature that, it's really impacted our health and wellbeing.

So biophilia is really our innate connection to nature. It's just [00:20:00] another word for like human nature and human connection to nature. And then biophilic design is bringing those key elements of nature indoors to benefit the people that are occupying a space. So whether it be a home, a hospital, a retail location, a hotel, bringing these little tiny key elements of nature indoors to really benefit, just relaxing of the brain, equaling out your nervous system.

But there's so many little nuances of our connections to nature that we often don't think about, but it's always happening within our bodies. So it's really cool to dive into and talk about and discover as we go. 

[00:20:34] Christine Santos: I have a, a client who walked the El Camino, the 500. Oh, yeah.

And,so we've been having some really deep discussions about that. To the point of intentionally going out into nature and letting yourself be healed, letting yourself, you know, be calm, lowering your anxiety. I know I struggle with anxiety and I go out in my deck just, you know, for a few moments and just, just stand there.

I just love it and listen to the birds and the rain or whatever's happening.

[00:21:05] Jennifer Walsh: Yeah, it's a tuning into our surroundings because oftentimes when we are doing other things, our monkey brains are just going so fast and all the lists of things we have to do that we are just always on this wheel, which is exhausting our brain.

So we are tired all the time. We are anxious all the time because we have this laundry list and we're never giving our brains a break because we're tapping into our computers all the time. We have our phones at the same time. So our brains are trying to. Comprehend all that's coming in. Like we're being flooded 24 seven with information.

So like you just said, going on your deck really just helps your brain just relax. So even looking at nature for 40 seconds will relax the prefrontal cortex. So it's just that, Oh, I'm looking at a beautiful cloud. Oh, look at that tree pattern or the leaf pattern. Oh, so you're taking your mind off the busyness, the busy brain, and you're just letting it just be present.

at the moment. So it's, it's quite magical, if you will. 

[00:22:02] Christine Santos: Yeah, I totally agree. And so how did you find yourself, in this at the time rare field, you've been doing this a long time. 

[00:22:10] Jennifer Walsh: It's funny. It's funny that you asked that, because when I started my first business back in the late nineties, I didn't know anything about retail.

I didn't know anything about business. I was in my twenties and back then in the nineties, there are very few women in business. There were very few women that were single in business. And I didn't know of any beauty brands that had what I wanted to create. So no one understood what I want to do, which was create, um, store, uh, very like, I called an apothecary, the Beauty Bar apothecary, people didn't know what an apothecary was.

They couldn't understand. Is this a salon or is this a spa? I said, it's neither. So I just wanted to have people come in and just. Buy products at ease and not feel like they're pressured to buy anything, but just to come into like, what would be my living room feeling. So I created a space that was full of wood and green coloring and lots of natural elements.

I always keep the doors open at the breeze coming in. And I had a friend that worked in radio, so he would create a soundtrack for my store and people always say, wow, that's really cool music. And anyway, I didn't realize. All those key elements were biophilic design, which we now know. So I was always told I'm doing my stores all wrong.

No one cares about the interior. You know, I was, I'm self funded, so I didn't have to go to investors. So thank God I didn't because they would have never have allowed me to do what I did. Cause it was never done before and no one got it until they got it. So people would come and linger and hang out in the store for hours.

Um, especially on Saturdays, people just kind of all join and come and hang out in the store. And it was pretty magical and funny at the same time, because. Brands would call and say, how did you sell so many products this month? So they were wondering, like, did we, did we do something that was, I don't know, illegal?

Um, I got a lot of those kinds of questions. Are you selling it in a different market or gray market or whatever it was called? but no, it was just people felt comfortable in the stores and they would just hang out and, and buy and kept buying and buying and buying. So Beauty Bar was at my very first foray into creating biophilic spaces.

[00:24:12] Christine Santos: And What were the products that you were selling? 

[00:24:15] Jennifer Walsh: So, I mean, everyone knows the brands now, but Stila, Trish McAvoy, Creed, Lemaire, Fresh, Urban Decay, L'Occitane, Artist Shaving, Jack Black, Mario Badescu, like 7, 500 different SKUs. So we had a lot of, a lot of products and a lot of brands. 

[00:24:32] Christine Santos: so you created the space?

Mm hmm. And then you curated. The products. Is that right? Correct. Correct. Okay. so these products that you brought in were also being sold, at their stores 

[00:24:44] Jennifer Walsh: Not really. So this is back in the 90s where there really weren't any stores.and department stores were only selling like the top, like Chanel, Clinique, T. Lauder, and. They're like what five or six brands sold at department stores. And that was it. So at the time there were magazines talking about Stila and going to this new website called Stila. com. back then people weren't shopping online yet. They weren't feeling comfortable. So I had a TV segment.

At the time every week. And I was showcasing these unheard of brands like Stila and Bobby Brown. And people would call my home office and say, why is Bobby Brown, the rap star making makeup? I'm like, no, it's not Whitney Houston's husband. It is a woman who's a makeup artist. So I thought, well, I had this great tool, an educational tool known as TV.

No one was on TV yet talking about beauty. So it was a very weird. Time. So I was talking about these beauty products, no one ever heard of. And I thought, well, what if I turn this TV segment into a store and then the store could be the sales channel for it. And I did. So the brands like philosophy were just like being mentioned on Oprah.

And I said, can I, what do you think about me selling your products in a store? Like, okay, sure. And I mean, there was nothing else. So they were like, Oh, you have TV. This could be great or it couldn't be great. but it took years for me to get keels. It took years for me to get La Mer.

It took years for me to get some of the brands I really wanted to curate really well. And that's how it really started. And we got to grow it. And then we had a website back in the late nineties. And it's funny because. People wouldn't even give me their email addresses back then. Now it's too dangerous.

Um, so that's why I created the website. I go, if I can't get your email address and I'll just tell you there's a website now we could sell. So then at that time we began the very first beauty brand in the country, uh, before Macy's, before Neiman's or Nordstrom or any department store selling products online.

On TV and in brick and mortar.

[00:26:36] Christine Santos: oh my gosh, that's amazing. 

[00:26:39] Jennifer Walsh: It was [00:26:40] really fun. 

[00:26:41] Christine Santos: would you say that you're a naturally innovative person? I mean, that's innovative.

[00:26:45] Jennifer Walsh: I didn't, to be honest, it's funny. I just talked about this, my uncle yesterday that I didn't plan on how it turned out, I didn't plan for it to be this catalyst to how we change the world.

How we changed shopping for beauty forever. I never thought about it that way. It was like, I want to create a space that people felt comfortable coming in and that I could have for the rest of my life. And it could be mine. That was the only point and the only purpose. But then the TV and the stores got bigger and bigger and more and more.

And the website was growing like crazy. We had customers all over the country and yeah, it just grew and grew and grew. Um, So yeah, it was exciting. 

[00:27:21] Christine Santos: And so did Amazon reach out to you? how does that work? 

[00:27:24] Jennifer Walsh: So what happened was 2008 was brutal, because of all the market was really bad and small business was hard and having a lot of employees and multiple locations.

So anyway, long story short, there's a company called Quidcy. So Quidcy owned diapers. com at the time. And they kept calling me in 2009. And I didn't understand because my stepson was not in diapers anymore. So I thought they had the wrong number and they didn't say why they were calling. They just leave messages saying it's us from diapers.

We want to speak with you. And I never called them back for months. And then they finally called and said, we need to talk to you about Beauty Bar. And I said, Oh, well, that's different. So then I called them and they said, listen, we are interested in buying You, but I didn't know. The point of them buying me is because they were already talking to Amazon and Amazon wanted to get into beauty, but no one would ever sell their products on Amazon.

And I already had beauty. So their whole underlying concept was to buy me, flip us both to Amazon. And that's what happened. That's how beauty started on Amazon was the purchase of, Beauty Bar back 15 years ago, 

[00:28:27] Christine Santos: Oh my gosh. Congratulations. 

[00:28:29] Jennifer Walsh: Thanks. It wasn't as easy as that sounded, but it was a, it was a terrible year.

It was a very tumultuous year. So I'm working on a book about all of it now,

 So tell us about Walk with Walsh. Tell us how that started and where that's going. 

Yeah. it's funny you're asking about that. Because. I never planned for Walk With Walsh it just kind of happened because I was already walking all the time and Facebook live had just started and I've been doing TV for all this time. I thought, wouldn't it be nice to just have a conversation with friends that are doing innovative things in nature or that are looking at nature in a new and different way.

but also building their businesses in a healthy way. so I was doing this very basic interview series, walking in Central Park. And Christine, every single person I interviewed kept saying, this feels so good. I never get outside. And that was shocking to me. I couldn't believe every single person kept saying, this is such a nice break.

I never get to go out. And I thought, well, you're a healthy leader and you do all these things, right. But why aren't you going outside? You know, I never, I couldn't get it. I couldn't understand. And that's when my studies, I just said, well, there's gotta be something here. There has to be, people know it feels good, but they're denying themselves the gift of, you know, Connecting back to nature.

What what's going on? and that's when I started really saying, Oh my gosh, there's something here. There's really something here. That's powerful and immediate that we need to really, take note of. And I, I just couldn't scream it enough from the mountaintop saying, Oh my gosh, look, guys, we have to be outside.

Look at there's all this research and their studies. And I really wanted to partner with neuroscientists, but this is back in. 2016. And I was way too green in the space. to really partner with anyone, but it took me a few years to really do more research, get the science under my belt and, really kind of be able to talk to people in a way that's not just like, yay, nature, it's pretty.

I wanted the science. I wanted the data. I wanted the research, in my toolkit to be able to speak to it. And I tell you before COVID, not many people want to listen. I'd be very, I'll be very honest. It was like pulling teeth to get people to even go for a walk outside. Cause I was trying to bring teams outside to say, you know.

I know you're doing your yoga classes, you're doing, you're offering this, but we also need to go outside And I kept hearing. It was cute. And I thought, wow. Uh, I was called a, a tree hugger, like all these things. And I thought, do you understand how impactful nature and nature design is in hospitals and in stores and so it was, so since COVID everyone started calling and saying, Oh, you have.

You have the data, don't you? I said, yeah, I do have it. I've got the data. I got the science. That's really how it all just started growing exponentially since COVID. 

[00:31:01] Christine Santos: So I'm hearing in both of these stories, a common thread of resistance from others. And I want to ask about that a little bit. So, what would you say, so a lot of the listeners of Wonder Boldly are small business owners, new or want to be entrepreneurs, and as you know, um, fully well know, there's a lot of resistance in so many forms, right?

Yes. And so, whether it's Your own self limiting beliefs or outward resistance. So how did you push past those? In both stories, you had that resistance. 

[00:31:36] Jennifer Walsh: it was more of, for me, I needed to be educated I wanted to make sure I knew exactly what I was talking about, especially at Beauty Bar, because I was young.

I was in my late twenties, early thirties when I started. And I needed to know that I could walk into a room and, and understand the market, know what I was up against, knew the latest stories and trends. And I just needed to know that not that I was the smartest person in the room, but I knew what I was talking about.

and that's kind of how I, that's how I looked at Beauty Bar. Cause I was young and I was up against a lot and a lot of pushback as we grew from from men that were double my age, That were saying things to me and judging and lots of stuff. that will be in 

[00:32:15] Christine Santos: your book. 

[00:32:16] Jennifer Walsh: Yeah, that will definitely be in the book.

It will definitely be in the book. Oh my gosh. but also same thing with, you know, these wellness walks and Walk with Walsh, the video series, turning into wellness walks and all these other things I wanted to make sure I knew exactly what I was talking about, that it wasn't just fluff, that it was science backed, and that there's a reason why it's important, and not just something flippant or silly, but very something deeply rooted in, in science and human health.

And the same thing with Beauty Bar. I wanted people to go to a space where they felt good, and it wasn't just about selling makeup. It was about how people felt in their skin, and how they felt in their community, and just how they felt, as a person. So. Yeah, it was about, I guess, reading and educating myself on as much as I possibly could.

Good question. 

[00:32:58] Christine Santos: Do you feel like, you know, there's also that, saying analysis paralysis, or, you know, when you feel that resistance, you're like, okay, well, maybe I need this certificate. Maybe I need to,go get this, degree. how do you sort of balance that? I understand what you're saying.

Like you've wanted to feel educated, of course, and you went and,immersed yourself in [00:33:20] learning. And then what would your advice be to new entrepreneurs or people wanting to be entrepreneurs? How do you say, okay, enough is enough right now. And let me move forward with the knowledge I have.

[00:33:30] Jennifer Walsh: That is a great, great question. And a great point, because you're right. People can just get so stuck, especially now, because there are so many online programs and there's so many books you can read, and there's so much. You can be just doing, even though you're not doing the actual thing you're supposed to be doing to get further for yourself and your business.

So I think we innately know, I really deeply believe that we innately know within ourselves that we have the right tools that we need at the time we're ready. so for me, it was always at night reading what I could and absorbing what I could, but at the same time I was doing the actions I needed to do.

 when you just said is exactly such a pain point for so many people, because we are just sometimes stuck, in fear or, imposter syndromes and.

I'm not ready. I need the more certificates. I need 10 certificates to go forward. And I mean, that's definitely not true. especially for me wanting to partner with neuroscientists while I knew I was too green to partner with them and they didn't want to partner with me. It took me years to be able to share, write white papers.

I want to be. In this field of understanding more and now I'm faculty advisor and the only non clinician for the two groups. I work with. So it was very nice of them to say, yeah, you've done all the work you can do. And we'd love for you to be a part of it. And you are the outside voice that we need in our inside voice.

So, yeah, it's you kind of, I think you innately know. 

 So tell us a little bit more about that. I'm so intrigued by that. So what do you do there? 

[00:34:54] Jennifer Walsh: I met Dr. Anjan Chatterjee in 2018. We actually wound up speaking on the same panel in Italy for the Global Wellness Summit. And I just said, oh my gosh, you're talking about beauty and wellness and the brain.

I thought this is exactly what I've been talking about my whole life. Is how we feel, when we witness beauty or experience beauty. And so I just said, Oh my gosh, I really want to work with you in some way. And I didn't know how in 2018, but again, I was still studying and I was still researching.

And we just kept talking all the time. And I just kept telling him how interested I was. And, um, it was more of. Just coming out saying, Hey, what if, what if we partnered on some projects and how can I be a part of your network and you can be a part of mine and how can I help, you know, do whatever I can do.

And that's kind of how it started for both that. And also the brain health initiative, which is under Harvard and Mass General. So they do a lot of, their, the actual brain health initiative program is actually based out of South Florida. It's in, uh, the Sarasota region, so they do a lot of the work down there where there's classes and programming really trying to understand all the key elements of what makes the brain healthy.

And of course there's a lot less on your devices and a lot more in person, activities and having conversations with people, We need to not just type things, but really converse with people again.

So, yeah, they're two different programs, but it's really fun to be a part of both of them. 

[00:36:16] Christine Santos: And so what does a day in the life look like for you now? 

[00:36:22] Jennifer Walsh: That is a great, that's like a million dollar question. I don't know. Every day is totally different. So I can, some days I'm writing articles for different magazines that I work with.

 I wrote a book with Prevention Magazine called Walk Your Way Calm. So I've written columns for Prevention, for Good Housekeeping, for Bella magazine, I do a lot of yahoo. com work so I can be writing articles for magazines. I could be preparing for TV segments. So February 2025 will be my 28th year on air every month.

I consult. I consult for beauty brands that are launching new products that are launching new stores, or I could be consulting with. Retailers and they're about to open a new shop. How do I help them create biophilic spaces? talking to hospitals. I still lead walks in central park, for different groups.

So that's also fun because people think I walk full time. That's my full time job. And it's not great. I'd love to be in central park walking for hours on, on end, but, uh, no, but hotels will hire me. Corporate clients will hire me. Celebrity people, who want to get out and walk and just understand what's happening to our brains and we're exposed to certain elements in nature.

so yeah, it's, it's very different. And we also have our podcast Biophilic Solutions Podcast so we're also recording that all the time and taking notes and reading books about people. And it's, it's. It's always different. Christine, it's always different. 

[00:37:48] Christine Santos: Yes. So when people go for a walk with you in Central Park,what is the topic of conversation?

[00:37:54] Jennifer Walsh: it depends on the group size and it depends on if we've done the walks before, but if it's like a first time group. Let's just say it's a brand and they want to get their team out for a walk. It's more of being fully aware and present of what your body feels like. Right now in New York city, it's December and it's raining.

I wish it were snowing, but it's raining and supposed to be raining really hard later. So what does your body feel like? Do you feel that wetness on your skin with the sound of the, the raindrops on the umbrella? What does that, what does that feel like to you? And so then we kind of take all the senses that were, what are you smelling?

What are you feeling? What are you hearing? Amen. I always try and suggest to people not to wear your earbuds when you're out for a walk so you can really tune into the natural world around you and witness the beauty of that changing landscape because a lot of us, you know, we're so concerned about climate change and we're so concerned about sustainability, but I always say you cannot see, touch, smell, or taste sustainability, but you can of nature.

And if you're expecting people to care about something they know nothing about, which is their own backyard. So people are not going outdoors. They're not going into their backyard to even know what the trees are or the plant species or the animals. If you can't care about your own backyard, you're not gonna be able to care about the planet bottom line.

And I, I will scream that from the top of the mountains for as long as possible, because I think we as a society are not putting enough understanding and time into learning about how nature really impacts our overall health and wellbeing. And so just go for that walk and say, wow. Look at those, like for me, again, it's December in New York city, in front of my apartment, the trees are still green leafed.

Everything is still green. And I'm speechless because I've never in all my years of living in this apartment, almost 15 years, I've never seen the leaves not change colors. And for them to still be on the trees in December, in the middle, almost middle of December. It's, eye opening, it's shocking things happen very quickly, but they don't.

And if people aren't noticing those changes, they just think, wow, what, what happened this winter? But I said, no, it hasn't been just this winter. It's in this gradual evolving change. And we have to be, we have to bear witness to it. Otherwise, we just have our blinders up and we don't even [00:40:00] see the world around us happening.

[00:40:01] Christine Santos: And I wonder what that means for the trees. 

[00:40:04] Jennifer Walsh: I'm thinking the same thing. Are they going to all die? Or they're resilient? Can they come back? Because there are six, eight, seven, eight, I think there's eight specifically right on my street. And I, you know, across the street from one another, I think, even this morning, I just ran to go run an errand before we had this conversation and I was staring at them thinking, are they going to be okay?

Because they also aid in keeping the street cool in the summer. And, it's just all these things that are beautiful about the street and these trees. I worry that I hope they don't die because that will make the street so much hotter. If we then have no more trees on the street. Um, all these like little things we have to think about how do we care for our local because again, everything's always so big and grandiose, but I was saying the care and the concern starts in our own backyard.

And that means your own family, our own community, our school. How do we care for the micro versus the macro? 

[00:40:54] Christine Santos: so talking about, getting outside in nature and can you just educate us a little bit, you know, there's so much, but just take a moment to share with us some of the benefits, the neuroscience behind being in nature,

we are nature. We evolved outdoors. It wasn't until the Industrial Revolution that we had this migration inside and it changed us. Our brains are still prehistoric brains. Even though we think that we can multitask and we think that we can do all these things, our brains are prehistoric brains in this new world, and it's trying to comprehend at all times, the noise, the distractions, the flood of information, and the one place where we feel The best is when we are closest to nature, getting that fresh air, getting that sunlight throughout the day again, helps us set up our circadian sleep.

[00:41:42] Jennifer Walsh: So that way we are waking with the sun. We can go to bed when it gets darker. Um, and our people, I like to, I hear them fighting about, Oh God, I can't believe I hate this time of year. It's so dark. But again, this is how we evolve. This is how we've always evolved for millennia is in coherence with the natural world.

So us continuously fighting that doesn't help anyone. So there's aggression and aggressiveness towards the fear of what nature's doing to us versus understanding and saying, wow, it's really helping us. Even like a small example is we're going for a walk in a local park, or maybe you live in a place where there are pine trees.

So conifer trees, pine trees, they emit something called phytoncides. So phytoncides are their terpenes, natural terpenes that they are releasing all the time. A little bit more in the summer months than in the fall. But they're always releasing these terpenes to ward off disease and illness within them.

So they're bathing themselves in these terpenes. It's also another idea around forest bathing. So they're bathing themselves in these terpenes. What happens to us we inhale these terpenes, we can't see, smell, or taste them, but we're constantly inhaling these terpenes around these trees.

And what's fascinating is the fact that it is almost acting like a multivitamin for us every day, where when we inhale it. We activate something called our natural killer cells, NK cells, and these NK cells help us ward off disease and illness within the human body. And we're not even thinking about it.

It's already happening. It's already like really taking place in our body. So all these little tiny levers are always being pulled in our aid, in our health, but we're not even thinking about it. Like just the sunlight being able to help. With our sleep. And then the more time we are, in that natural space of sunlight and not just artificial light, it helps us sleep better.

So it's just these little tiny things, these nuance, things that we don't think about. There's something called, attention restoration theory, art. So ART in nature, you are again, that brain is going all the time. We can't help it, but we can go for that walk in nature We just disconnect from that.

the busy ness. It makes us rest, makes us feel relaxed. We don't feel stressed. So again, taking the to the edge off instead of taking pills all the time, um, not discounting pills because they're a wonder for many people. They help, but at the same time, don't discount how important reconnecting to the natural world It's so detrimental to be indoors

93 percent of our time indoors and. That really hasn't happened until the past hundred years, and we're becoming more and more unwell because of it. think about all the chemicals that we're inhaling from candles to cleaning supplies. So we need that fresh air.

So it's always like little tiny movements throughout the day of understanding and witnessing beauty. In the natural world, like for me, like looking at my window in New York City and seeing what the color of the sky at four o'clock in the afternoon is so beautiful in the winter. I love it. I just love it.

Because again, it's fleeting and it's going to be gone. So I think as long as we can appreciate those beautiful moments, Whatever we're going through, it really changes our outlook on ourselves and our life as well. I started Wednesday wellness walks in 2016 to tell people to go outside for 15 20 minutes every Wednesday.

Try that as a new thing. I'm very happy to see a lot more people do it a lot more than just 15, 20 minutes on Wednesdays. So we're getting there. So honestly, it's like baby steps. And I know a lot of us think that we have to take HIIT classes and do these hardcore workouts. But if we can just activate our brain in a way that's, positive, we feel good, we feel safe.

You know, of course, going to a park at a place where we feel safe and comfortable is a very big part of that as well. 

[00:45:19] Christine Santos: So if somebody wanted to dive in deeper and find out more about the work you're doing and how maybe they can learn more, get involved, what would you suggest?

[00:45:28] Jennifer Walsh: I try and share, a lot more sharing of biophilic experiences on Instagram next year, try and map that out. So I'm on Instagram, so that's the best way to follow me. On LinkedIn, I do a lot of, a lot of full blown articles on LinkedIn. Everything is thejenniferwalsh, And walkwithwalsh. com is my website. So yeah, there's different ways. To, engage or ask questions. I'm always here toanswer questions for anyone that might have them. 

[00:45:51] Christine Santos: Well, thank you so much for being here with us, Jen. I really enjoyed this conversation. 

[00:45:56] Jennifer Walsh: I love what you're doing. So keep up the good work.

And I, I so appreciate everything that you share with the world. 

[00:46:01] Christine Santos: Thank you so much. 

Well, thank you for that. That was wonderful. I took some notes. I'll know where to go back in our, in our episode. Um, I also wanted to take a moment, um, just to say I'm so sorry about your uncle. I should have said that in the beginning.

[00:46:18] Jennifer Walsh: Thank you. It's, uh, yeah, I spent yesterday with my other uncle. Um, because it was our first holiday without his brother. It's just, uh, it's been hard. Thank you. It's been really, it's been really hard losing him. And, uh, you know, he's, he lives very close to me. So my uncle that passed away lived four blocks away, so I'd see him.

Three times a week. He's the person I saw the most in my life for the [00:46:40] past 15 years because we live so close and he was like my, my consummate date. We go out all the time together. We hang out all the time together. So yeah, it was really, that was, it's been a really tough few months. So thank you. 

[00:46:53] Christine Santos: Yeah.

I'm sorry. Did you decide to keep his typewriter and sitting right over 

[00:46:58] Jennifer Walsh: here? You don't even want to know how this whole side of my little tiny apartment has paintings. Jackets, a giant screen TV, all these like things I still like I can't I can't deal with anymore and the typewriter is Mickey Mouse. I have I have a hat.

Oh my god, I have so much stuff of his. Oh, it's okay because I walk in my apartment I can smell them. So now I don't, I don't mind. So I just got chills. 

[00:47:26] Christine Santos: Yeah, 

[00:47:27] Jennifer Walsh: every time I walk in because his coats are all like piled up right here, all this giant pile of beautiful coats that he has. Um, so yeah, I can smell them when I get it.

So that makes me happy. 

[00:47:36] Christine Santos: That's nice. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:47:38] Jennifer Walsh: Thank you. I appreciate that. 

[00:47:41] Christine Santos: Well, thank you so much. I hope you have a wonderful time in Florida and the holidays. 

[00:47:46] Jennifer Walsh: Oh, I'm so excited. I'm thrilled to get I mean, I miss the cold weather. So it's hard for me to go somewhere that's kind of hot. Yeah, I prefer the cold in winter, but I get to be down there and see family and I'm super excited.

So 

[00:47:57] Christine Santos: Oh, good. 

[00:47:58] Jennifer Walsh: Having me this has been such a joy with you. 

[00:48:01] Christine Santos: Oh, thank you. It's been a joy to be with you. I'm going to keep keeping on if you ever need anything. You know, like you were saying with that gentleman, I can't remember his name. And you said to him, how can I work with you? That's what I'm thinking.

How can I work with you? How can I help you? So I'm here. If you ever think of anything, 

[00:48:20] Jennifer Walsh: whatever I can do to help you, you just let me know. Whatever you need. 

[00:48:25] Christine Santos: Thank you. I love it. I love it so much. I'll be diving in, diving in more and more. Well, thank you. Have a great holiday. 

[00:48:33] Jennifer Walsh: Thank you. You too. 

[00:48:34] Christine Santos: Okay. We'll talk soon.

[00:48:36] Jennifer Walsh: Bye. 

[00:48:36] Christine Santos: Bye.