 What's the difference between building a brand like Daybreaker and starting a religion or cult? Is there one? Radha Agarwal, founder and CEO of Daybreaker. Are you ready to answer some questions? Let's go. What is Daybreaker? Daybreaker is a global morning dance community and party all around the world. We wake up at sunrise before anybody wakes up on a weekday morning, before going to work and we party our asses up, without alcohol. How'd you come up with the name? You know, breaking the day. It's such a beautiful concept of, you know, you break the day with energy and tension, joy, play, dance. What else, what else would I name it? How many people attended the first Daybreaker? And how many attended the last one before COVID? So the first one, we had 180 people in a basement in Union Square. The last one had 15,000 people at a stadium that we did where we opened with Oprah. What's the difference between building a brand like Daybreaker and starting a religion or cult? Is there one? No, the difference is that, you know, churches are really going down. They're not no longer a place to gather. And the whole idea is how can we create a space for people to connect in meaningful ways? That was also fun. At its inception, did you ever plan for Daybreaker to be a business? Yes, I did. I think when you build any community, you have to look at it through the lens of business, otherwise you fail. How do you plan to expand Daybreaker? We are in expansion mode right now. We just launched a membership modality, a platform to practice joy. It's the first ever place where you can literally practice how to be happy. If you're asking, how do I create a movement? Is it safe to assume you'll ever start one? No, because it always is a surprise movement building. When it comes from a place of authenticity, it really ends up being a bigger thing than you ever thought it would be. So you surprise yourself? I surprise myself. If I wanted to pay you as a consultant to help say, hey, you clearly have it. Help me start a movement. Now I can. So what are the elements strategically that build a movement? So I define it, I call it the crawl method. So defining your constraints. What are the constraints of the community? What are the rituals of the community? What are the aesthetics of the community? What is the why? Why does the community deserve to exist? Why are you the best leader for the community? And the L is language. What is the language? How are you speaking to your community? And if you really organize your movement through this crawl method, you'll win. Is crawl method your own? It is. Very impressive. Who created the logo? I had this woman named Alex Proba, but we gave her creative direction. What's your criteria for a logo? It needs to be timeless. It needs to be modern. It needs to carry symbolism. And it needs to be cool. Did your time at Burning Man help you figure out how to manifest Daybreaker? Yes, Burning Man was very much instrumental in designing and developing and dreaming Daybreaker. You're an identical twin. How did you and Mickey both get the entrepreneurial spirit? I think when you're twins and you're sharing bunk beds and you're just in a room sharing ideas all the time, it's always like, yes, yes, yes, yes. You know, it's never, that's stupid. I think having an identical twin to cheerlead your ideas is such a beautiful place to start. What's different between you and Mickey? Mickey is one of the most brilliant PR, marketer, product people. I am more a service person. I love services. I love Daybreaker. I love creating experiences. I love the liminal spaces. She loves products. And she crushes it. I think of you as someone who loves to surround themselves with friends all the time. Has motherhood changed that? No, not at all. In fact, motherhood is actually taking me closer to my friends. And I think if we do motherhood right, then we can have it all. You come up like some crazy, free-spirited, untameable soul, but you've built multiple businesses and went to Cornell. Help me reconcile these things. Yeah, so when your mother's from Japan, your father's from India, there's the achieving side of oneself. And I think the other side is really choosing friends, choosing community, who push me to try a more spiritual path. And I think I've really leaned into that. And that's what creates me. What percentage of you is Radha Agarwal, the Ivy League strategic operator versus Radha Agarwal, the Burning Man, gratitude, free-spirited person? Oh, man, maybe it's 50-50. All right, now we're at the Flowcode Flowcard. So this season, Flowcode is sponsoring. I'm with the brand. They are a revolutionary new QR technology that allows you to have direct connections with your fans' customers. So right now, people are seeing a customized Flowcode on-screen that they or their phones could pull out and it will take them to their own Flowpage. It'll be the Daybreak or Flowpage. So what would you love your Flowpage to have on it? Yeah, I'd love to have a link to our member page. I'd love to have links to secret ticket invitations and just ways to connect with one another. So I think it's a really fun, a fun concept. I love it. What does it mean to biohack your happiness? So many of us sort of read text, philosophize about happiness, without understanding how our neurochemistry works. And so biohacking happiness means starting with understanding the way your brain works to, in some ways, deconstruct happiness. What's a health or wellness trend you just can't get behind? Everyone is a coach and I just think there's a lot of fake coaches out there. So it's a trend. I think it's so important to have mentorship. It's so important to have coaching and support, but not if you're 22 and you have no experience to share. Would you say you're a good dancer? I never thought I was, but I guess I could bust a move. Feel free to show us one. In this format, maybe like waist down. It might not, or maybe just some shoulder. Do you want to do it with me? No. Okay, all right. Why'd you choose to hop on the subscription model and when? You know, we were in COVID and we were asking ourselves, how can we serve our community every day? The idea of creating a place that you could go every day on demand and receive support was really exciting to me. How do you define health? Health is whole health. It's holistic. It's mind, body, spirit. You're like textbook definition of openness, kindness, community. But is there a side of you where I'd be like, what? Yeah. I mean, ask my husband, Eli, what it's like when he leaves the socks on the floor. How'd you connect with Oprah? My producer from Chicago, Mel Stafford, who's this incredible woman, she left Daybreaker as our Chicago producer to go work for Oprah, who she worked with before us for 10 years. And so she brought us in. So it was a beautiful, again, community connection. What about today's day and age makes an experience like Daybreaker successful? The ingredients of nightlife, it's sexy, it's fun, it's mysterious, there's dressing up, it's all of that. And then wellness industry, which is yoga, meditation, breathwork, all of that. So when we fuse them together, particularly in this moment, in this time that we're alive, it really hit. When we say this time, are we talking this technology time connectedness, like can't escape time? No, I think this is a time where people are really coming home to their wellness practices. And people are really recognizing the importance of not just getting fucked up at a club all night, but they want to actually still party, have fun, but also invite their wellness practices into that party. If you had one marketing dollar to spend, where would you spend it? At this point, probably on TikTok. I've learned a lot of brands have a certain tribe that really helps fuel their success. Who's your tribe? We're all social entrepreneurs. People who came to our first event, 180 people were friends of mine, and they are mostly all social entrepreneurs. Who do you want to steal market share from? Peloton. What's the best part of the job? We get to be on the dance floor with our community every two weeks. Are your parents proud? They are now, but for the longest time it was like, it's not too late to go to medical school. What's the end game? To spread joy in such a way that people care enough about the planet. When you're unhappy, you don't give a shit. When you're in joy, you care. What brands were on your mood board? None. Who's on your Mount Rushmore? My sister, my daughter, my nephew, and my mom and dad. What's been harder than you anticipated? Building experiences for a living. It's not a scalable product. What is your kryptonite? Feeling misunderstood. What's been the biggest challenge you've had to date? When we had to pivot during COVID, from IRL events to live stream events. It was a crazy, crazy time. What's something really popular now that annoys you? Just basic bitch fitness. What's the biggest lesson you've learned so far? If you don't pay attention to your community and pay attention to authentic relationships, then there's no business. What's the next milestone you're working towards? Really building a multi-hundred-thousand-person membership platform to practice joy. Radha Agarwal, founder and CEO of Daybreaker. Thank you so much for coming on to answering my questions. Thank you for having me. I'm Ian Wishingrad, and I'll see you next time on I'm With the Brands.