Meet the Founders
CASSANDRA MATTHEWS, CO-FOUNDER & CEO
Eight years ago, CEO & Co-Founder Cassandra Matthews discovered Vedic meditation, and it completely transformed her life, sparking a long and deep journey home to herself. In just a few months, Cassie went from being a stressed out, imbalanced, anxious wreck, to someone feeling alive and well with a backdrop of bliss on all levels, radiating life and energy. It then became her life's mission and deep passion to empower as many people as possible with the wisdom, tools and practices to experience higher consciousness, happiness and wellbeing.
The further she explored the Vedic world view, the more she leant in to surrender and aligning with nature, volunteering as a vehicle for nature’s intent. In the months leading up to the inception of One Eleven Health, Cassie immersed herself in Vedic studies and took silence in meditation.
After her meditation on one of the days she had a wave of pure divine inspiration and furiously jotted it down in her notebook. A couple of days later, before she knew it, with unprecedented flow and speed, she had connected with business partners and investors that shared her values and vision, all passionate Vedic meditators with a conscious intent to effect change in the world.
Cassie had always been passionate about holistic health, and fell in love with Ayurveda, so it all made sense. All the business experience and life lessons she’d had up until now working in fashion for over a decade, and starting her previous businesses were to create this, and everything fell into place. Today, she runs One Eleven Health and enjoys every minute of it, immersing herself in learning about and exploring Ayurveda.
Since the inception of One Eleven Health, Cassie has spent many months in India immersed in the knowledge of Ayurveda, and taking part in extensive Ayurvedic detoxification and rejuvenation programmes with world-renowned Ayurvedic doctors. Her passion is taking timeless, complex, esoteric knowledge and sharing it in an elegant and simple way without its dilution. Her time is spent in the creative development of physical wellness staples and digital education products, as well as continuously deepening her knowledge of Ayurvedic principles.
DYLAN SMITH, CO-FOUNDER & HEAD OF EDUCATION
Dylan Smith is a certified Ayurvedic Practitioner and holistic health educator based in Sydney, Australia. You'll find him practicing out of his busy Bronte Clinic, serving patients from all over the world, dispensing precious herbal elixirs, and educating on the powerful wisdom of Ayurveda. Aimed at uncovering the root cause of ailments, Dylan shares wisdom through his podcast and teaching programs, travelling the world to share his holistic passion, teaching patients to effortlessly integrate foundational techniques into their daily life so they can thrive.
Regularly travelling to India to train with an internationally renowned family of Ayurvedic doctors, Dylan is devoted to learning, sharing and radiating this ancient knowledge for everyone to utilise and enjoy, to experience total wellness and bliss. Dylan's passion is to share pure and authentic knowledge of Ayurveda and holistic health in a way that is relevant and practical for those who worthily enquire for this precious knowledge.
Immersion into the science of Ayurveda fully began for Dylan when he was undergoing a detox and rejuvenation program (“Panchakarma”) in an Ayurvedic clinic in India in 2013. While pleasantly undergoing a vast array of Ayurvedic body-therapies, this retreat turned out to be much more than purification of the body and mind. It was here that Dylan learnt about the notion of “Dharma”, which means “what is the most evolutionary thing you can be doing at any moment.”
This teaching was a significant turning point in Dylan’s life. At the time he was studying architecture at university with some friction and reluctance, but after learning about Dharma, he had a spark to shift studies and career in order to support the needs of society in more functional and profound ways. But he didn’t know how or what to do. He expressed this confusion and yearning to contribute to the need of the time to the head doctor fo the clinic, who replied with a simple invitation:, “Come study Ayurveda here. We [the Raju family of Ayurvedic doctors] will teach you. No need to study anywhere else, just here.” This was the beginning of Dylan’s Ayurveda journey.
From here, he began his studies at the Australiasian Institute of Ayurveda, and once becoming a certified Ayurvedic practitioner, Dylan opened his Ayurvedic clinic in Sydney Australia, which later expanded into an education platform. Dylan continues to go back to India every year to learn with his teachers and will continue to do so for the rest of life, as Ayurveda contains lifetimes of eternal knowledge. Dylan has always had a love for nature, but since delving into Vedic wisdom and expanding his consciousness, he began to perceive the divine qualities of nature and its substances. Add Ayurvedic knowledge into the mix and a passion for nature expands into the healing quality of herbs.
Dylan says: "What a playful journey it is developing my relationship with plants, increasing my depth of perception into these sentient beings. With stellar awareness, I perceive the multi-dimensional vibratory particles in these substances. Guided by knowledge I utilise these substances for medicinal use to allow others to unify with nature and heal."