Most would argue that there is no exception to the rule: 1+1 = 2.
It is clearly impossible to manipulate those basic numbers to equal anything other than two.
But those people haven’t met Dr. Jesse Chappus and Marni Wasserman, nor borne witness to how their collective passion, grit, and love of health and wellness has created a “new math.”
- Dr. Jesse Chappus: Chiropractor-turned-professional podcaster, living in Windsor, Ontario
+
- Marni Wasserman: Certified Nutritional Practitioner and Natural Chef, living in Toronto, Ontario…
= at that time, 2 people who lived nearly four hours apart, in two very different worlds. Sort of.
Let’s go back nearly seven years to see how their worlds collided to create a “new math.”
Heavily involved in the health and wellness world, Jesse and Marni already knew each other from the industry. Marni then reached out to Jesse to see if he wanted to go for a run sometime (knowing he was into marathons).
Separated from her former husband, what started out as a simple sharing of a passion for health and wellness between two people evolved into a first date—a bike ride halfway between their hometowns.
Both in their 30’s and extremely passionate about helping others improve their health and overall wellness, they began to share another passion… for each other.
That presented a challenge, though, as they were living close to 400 miles away from each other.
Since Jesse owned a successful chiropractic practice and Marni ran a successful cooking school, they had limited time available. They decided to see each other on the weekends.
As their relationship blossomed, as well as their separate businesses, it became apparent that at some point in the future, a decision would need to be made about who would live where and who would start his or her business over in the other’s hometown.
For many couples, this scenario would present a multitude of challenges, some of which could very well turn out to be insurmountable. After all, both were already so well-established in their respective hometowns.
But that wasn’t the case for Jesse and Marni.
Jesse loved his chiropractic work, but he was also nurturing a new seed that had just started growing inside of him prior to he and Marni beginning to date—that of podcasting. He had begun co-hosting a show with a friend, and even though he only recorded a small number of episodes at that point, the fire of a new passion had been ignited.
About a year or so after they started dating, and about a year after his original podcast ended, Jesse and Marni started The Ultimate Health Podcast in September 2014. 
Going in to the project, the pair knew and agreed on the following: they were extremely passionate about sharing their individual health and wellness messages (having been blogging on their individual websites for years), they wanted to share their messages to a broader audience to really empower others, and they wanted to cover a wide range of topics as experts in their fields.
What they didn’t know was that this “side hustle” intended to share collective information would not only end up their full-time business, but that it would also ultimately reveal the answer to the who-would-move problem.
For nearly three years, the couple commuted to see each other, recording their new podcast only on the weekends. They marveled at how many people they were able to entice to give up a Saturday or Sunday to be a guest on their show.
Jesse, being technically savvy, detail-oriented, and a stickler (in a good way!) for learning all he can about his guests, and Marni, being creative, poetic, and utilizing a more feminine approach, found that the name came easily (based on Jesse’s love for simplicity, keywords, and research) and the structure and format evolved organically after testing out a variety of factors (another example of how these two people, together, created a magical formula that worked!).
The couple finally began recognizing their full strengths in the podcasting space.
It was no different in their relationship, either.
In 2016, about a year and a half after they started the podcast, Jesse decided to give up his practice in Windsor and move to Toronto. Noticing the growth of their show, and having already obtained one sponsor (due to Marni’s close relationship with a company she was affiliated with through her cooking school), they took a chance that the podcast would continue to grow and become a full-fledged business that could support them both. This risk of closing a thriving chiropractic practice (he did think about opening a new practice in Toronto, but realized his deep love really was for podcasting and sharing their messages with the world) to focus on building their podcast business was huge, but they both had trust and faith in the process and each other.
They moved in together, and their lives flourished: the podcast grew, they gained additional sponsors, and are currently sitting at over 14 million downloads with approximately 300+k downloads per month. Their relationship moved to the next level about a year and a half ago when they got married. Marni closed her cooking school, they moved back to Windsor, and brought a beautiful now four-month-old daughter, Sarelle, into the world in early 2020.
By focusing on their six Pillars of Health in life and love as a theme of their podcast, Jesse and Marni have learned how to change the formula for ultimate health and love by creating a true and lasting partnership in everything they do.
They are both fiercely enthusiastic about supporting each other in taking charge of their own health and learning how to balance the requirements of life day to day as podcasters, business owners, married partners, and now, as parents.
Agreeing that “it is so important to have connection and community” when building a life you love, they credit their success in business and life to listening to and honoring one another—focusing on strengths while recognizing and supporting the challenges each brings to the relationship by being a bit “older” when they started their lives together.
The importance of this belief of “partnership and team” is a common theme throughout their podcast—the pair even weaves their sponsors’ ads into their current episode topic in creative ways that show their deep commitment to ONLY aligning themselves with sponsors they 100% believe in and use themselves. As Jesse and Marni both pointed out, “If even one ingredient is something we don’t believe in, we won’t form a partnership with them.” And now, they’re actually at the point of having to turn sponsors away, not only because of their beliefs, but because they have so many! Talk about integrity!
So… how does 1+1 really = 4?
Well, Jesse and Marni’s “new math” formula was built on the following foundation:
1 (Jesse) + 1 (Marni) = 4 ((Love, Family, Integrity, and Freedom).
And that synergy and connection went on to create a successful podcast, business, and partnership that includes unconditional love, respect, passion, and commitment to ultimate health.
These two humble, integral, authentic, and loving people, along with their beautiful daughter and Australian Shepherd dog, Goji, now enjoy life on THEIR terms: spending six months of the winter in a warm climate in the U.S., sharing their messages with the world, feeling deep gratitude for the complete freedom in their life and business, and doing what they love in ultimate health and deep love.
June 2020 Issue
