Richard Matusow, founder of Full Lotus Coaching
A life walked between two worlds and the coaching that grew from it
I grew up in Durham, New Hampshire, the kind of kid who took school and sports seriously and tried to do well at both. My father was a local medical doctor and entrepreneur who was driven, magnetic, and full of life. He was a powerful role model for me and I loved standing on the foundation of his new ventures while he explained the vision that would unfold. His entrepreneurial spirit inspired me to study business and open my own companies later in life.
At age sixteen when my father died of cancer everything changed in my life. His loss turned my world upside down and stirred up a long list of deep existential questions that I had never explored. I had grown up with the assumption that my parents would remain healthy and I would continue to focus on school, sports, and opening up opportunities for the future. After my father's death, my reality was shaken and material accomplishments didn't feel like enough. Something deeper was missing from my life.
Eventually I started reading about Eastern philosophy and practicing yoga and meditation regularly. As I progressed with these more subtle, energetic practices I started to feel more balanced, clear, and joyful. In retrospect, my greatest loss with my father's untimely death became the biggest catalyst for transformation in my life. It led me on a quest to expand my horizons beyond my provincial cultural roots and taught me that profound challenges can be our most powerful motivators.
The world widens
As an undergraduate at Dartmouth College I studied and worked abroad on three separate occasions. Seeing, expressing, and experiencing daily life through different cultural frameworks helped me expand my perspective beyond the conditioning of my formative years. These experiences piqued my interest in world culture and inspired me to pursue a dual master's degree in International Relations and Business at Columbia University and Johns Hopkins SAIS.
In 1999 during business school I took a fateful vacation with friends to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I arrived in Rio at around midnight and I was immediately struck by the vibrance of the city and people. Even at that late hour I saw people jogging, playing sports, walking on the beaches, playing music, and dancing in the streets. The next morning I noticed everyone eating and drinking thick purple stuff in smoothies and bowls with fruit and granola. I had no idea what it was. After trying my first açaí bowl, I understood why everyone was so obsessed with it. Its unique taste, smooth texture, and energizing effects made açaí such an attractive and potent fuel for the vibrance in Rio.
Shortly after I finished graduate school I returned to Rio to work for an American company, train for triathlons, and eat copious amounts of açaí. The more obsessed I became with açaí the more I started researching all aspects about it. This research led me to the founders of Sambazon, who had started importing açaí to the United States. They taught me about açaí's superfood nutritional profile and the sustainable harvesting practices. In 2002 I joined Sambazon as an equity partner and vice president of sales.
Where the two roads converged
For the subsequent ten years I helped build Sambazon into a popular consumer brand with products in all mainstream channels. It was an extraordinary business journey but all the travel paid a toll on my body and mind. Even though I enjoyed the challenge of growing a sustainable business, I still felt like something deeper was missing from my life.
Fortuitously a co-worker at Sambazon introduced me to his Kriya Yoga teacher and I started to train in all aspects of that path. The postures, breathwork, meditation, chanting, and philosophy all struck deep chords within me and I started to feel more balanced and fulfilled from the inside out. As I experienced more yoga practices I became keenly interested in sound and mantra. This interest led me to Sri Shaymji, master of the yoga of sound and the founder of the Chakra Institute. Sri Shyamji taught me the InnerTuning System for psychological and spiritual growth. This body of work provides a comprehensive and dynamic framework to understand the interconnectivity between our inner and outer experiences in life.
During this time period I became deeply immersed in both the material world of growing Sambazon and the subtle world of spirituality with yoga and InnerTuning. My work life was fast paced, social, and goal oriented while my vacations were spent in austere and silent purification retreats at the Chakra Institute. As I experienced these two opposite extremes more and more, it became clear to me that lasting happiness required balance and contentment with it all.
Building the integration
In 2015 I had a vision to integrate everything that was inspiring me under one umbrella. My goal was to combine the entrepreneurial spirit that I admired in my father with the love that I'd developed for both açaí and yoga.
In May of 2015 I found a location in an old house in Portland, Oregon and opened Carioca Bowls Açaí Café and Full Lotus PDX Yoga & Meditation Center. The vision to combine an energizing, outward experience with delicious handcrafted açaí bowls with a tranquil, inward experience through donation-based yoga, meditation, sound healing, and community gatherings.
For the following five years both sides of the house thrived and the community was robust and vibrant. Then the pandemic hit which triggered a long list of unexpected changes. As a result of the pandemic Full Lotus PDX was forced to close and to survive Carioca Bowls had to focus more on take out, catering, and pop up events.
After closing Full Lotus PDX for several years I missed the deep, supportive, healing community connections. Finally in 2025 after completing an intensive Transformative Coaching training I got inspired to bring the Full Lotus brand back as a deep coaching practice. Accordingly, I started Full Lotus Coaching as a practice to support, guide, and co-create with people who are ready to explore aspects of their lives that they want to enrich, integrate, and fulfill.
The lineages I draw from
Across the years of that journey, I have trained in five complementary contemplative paths:
Eastern philosophy and Buddhism — the first doorway, opened by the questions my father's death left me with
Kriya Yoga — the path that arrived through that fateful introduction from a Sambazon coworker
Hatha Yoga — including 500-hour Advanced Teacher certification through Sivananda
Kundalini Yoga — Teacher certification in the lineage of Yogi Bhajan, including leading practices and retreats
The InnerTuning system at the Chakra Institute — many years of study and Teacher certification under Sri Shyamji
These aren't credentials I list to impress. They are the rooms I've sat in, the teachers who have shaped me, and the practices that continue to ground me. They are the lineage I bring into every session, whether or not the language of any particular tradition is in the room.
Coaching as a vocation
A few years ago, I completed the year-long programs at the Center for Transformational Coaching, earning both the Deep Coach Certificate and the Life Coach Certificate. I have logged extensive practice hours — both coaching and being coached — and have prepared for this chapter with the same patience I bring to my sadhana.
Coaching, for me, is the synthesis of everything I've studied and lived. It is a vocation, not a side venture. It's where the inner work and the outer work finally have a shared language.
What I value
A friend once described me, in the language of Vedic numerology, as a 2-7-9 — someone whose values cluster around integrity, wisdom, vision, acceptance, expression, and sensitivity. That description has stayed with me because it felt accurate.
I'd add curiosity, openness, and the willingness to keep learning, no matter how long I've been at this.
I believe everyone is spiritual, whether they use that word or not. I believe the deepest changes are unhurried. I believe there's an opportunity inside every challenge, even when we can't see it yet. And I believe coaching should be accessible to anyone genuinely ready for it, which is why I built sliding-scale and exchange-based options into this practice from the start.
An invitation
If any of this resonates, I'd be glad to talk. The discovery call is free, the conversation is real, and there's no pressure either way. (If you're in Portland and would rather meet in person, that's an option, too.)