Episode Transcript

Martin 

I’d love to hear a little bit more about sort of your background and story. So tell us about, you know, your journey and how did you sort of get started into breath work?

Reis 

Yeah, I never really intended to be doing any of what I’ve done in my life. Years ago, I got into blogging, actually, through a friend had started an online sort of media platform. It was all built around do-it-yourself surfing. So we were making videos and various content on

how to build your own surfboard, how to repair your board, how to make your own sunscreen, surf wax, all these types of things. We kind of were like, we’re in this era where we really don’t know how to make anything for ourselves, you know? Everything is just like go buy it at the store. So how do we become a little bit more self-sufficient? So we created this blog, ended up winning Best Surf blog through Surfer Magazine and had a lot of success just within the surf industry within that.

And being young people, we never had a business plan or anything. So it kind of got to the point where it wasn’t really making anyone any money. And we kind of had to wind it down a little bit. And from there, just through the connections that I had made, I got into social media marketing. And I had a handful of just private clients, mostly in the action sports space. And I had met a guy through that.

through one of my clients who was, you know, I guess he was my boss, technically. And we ended up starting our own agency. And so I ran that for about eight years. And in the midst of that, as life goes, you know, the responsibilities start to increase. I ended up having two kids, just, you know, own a house, like all of these things that just started to compile

really just got to a point where I was like overworked, stressed out, didn’t really know how to manage all the things. You know, growing up in coastal San Diego, surfing was always really my kind of getaway and exercise and just like all the things, you know, the physical, mental, spiritual aspects of surfing and as the responsibilities increase, surf time decreased.

was really just kind of looking for something. I heard Wim Hof on a podcast, and for those who don’t know who Wim Hof is, he’s sort of a figure in the breathwork world. He’s this Dutch guy. He’s got all kinds of world records. He’s just like this crazy, super outgoing, rambunctious human who created his own method of breathing, and it combines with cold exposure.

some mental practices and so I heard him on podcast and was like whoa this guy’s like Onto something just his whole vibe. So I Went home and I was in just in conversation with my wife telling her about it and she was like Oh, I was just talking to Luke who’s a friend of hers about this The other day you should call him and talk to him so I think I got his email address from her or something and I emailed him and he I said hey I heard you like

know about this Wim Hof stuff, would love to know more. And he was like, oh, are you ready for a life upgrade? I was like, how can you say no to that? So he came over, we did one, he led me through, you know, my kind of first breathing session and it just took me somewhere that we had met, yeah, we had met like a couple times before. He had a really bad back injury and so,

Martin

Had you guys met each other before? Had you met before?

Reis 

we had met a couple times and but never had really hung out or connected beyond just like, you know, seeing him around town and stuff. And so he led me through my first breathing session and that was like, that was it for me. I just got so into it. Doug Wim had an online course, his original 10 week course I did in like 10 days ended up going to a workshop in Los Angeles with

a teacher who I didn’t really know at the time, but he was sort of Wim’s kind of main guy who helped him develop a lot of his programming and teacher training and was training all Wim’s other teachers. And I ended up going for one day and then the next day he was teaching another class. So I ended up staying for that. And after that, I was like, all right, what do I do now? And he was like, well, I’m going to Poland. You should come with me. So I did this Poland trip and climb mountains in my shorts at minus 20 degrees Celsius.

Um, just deep transformation, transformational experience. And I came home and I was like, I want to teach this. Um, and, and so went, went into WIMS training and did that. And really like the biggest blessing of it all was the fact that I had met Luke. Um, because he came from a different sort of lineage of breathwork. He was a rebirth or, um, he also had a yoga background, so had studied a lot of pranayama.

And I think within the breath world, it’s very similar to the yoga world or like kind of anything that you get into. It’s like you find one channel and that becomes the thing. And you get super evangelical about it. And you kind of like have blinders against everything else. And because I had met Luke, it was like, yeah, I got into the Wim Hof thing. But then he also exposed me to rebirthing and all these other ways of breathing. And

that kind of opened up the lens for me, which I see as just a major blessing along my path. So anyway, I got into the Wim Hof training and in the meantime, coming back from Poland, I ended up buying like a cold plunge and ended up starting having friends over. And really it was just like Luke and I, we’d go in my kid’s room on Sunday mornings and we’d breathe and then go outside and get in the cold plunge. And then we started inviting friends.

And then it just like this little kind of community started to develop as I was going through the training. Um, and you know, we’d clear out my garage, people would pile into my garage on Sunday, as we ended up calling it breath church or ice church, sorry, ice church. Uh, and, and it just kind of like turned into this like little local community. And at the time, you know, I’m

in San Diego, in Sanitas, California, it’s sort of like the birthplace for yoga in the West and it’s yoga is everywhere and it’s just a very big wellness community. And there was really only a handful of people doing breath work here at the time. And so I don’t know, it just like the timing of it all was, was really beautiful in that way. And I went through the training, finished that, and then I started teaching workshops locally here and then not sort of

was another feeder into Ice Church and just the overall community and started teaching a weekly class. And from there I got introduced to another woman who her and Luke kind of were like, Luke was trying to figure out, he was a school teacher, he was trying to figure out like, how can I move away from teaching in the school to like teaching all the things that I love to teach, which is breath work, yoga, meditation, mindfulness, all of these things.

They sort of came up with this idea and approached me and said, Hey, we’re thinking about doing this thing. Would you want to be a part of it? And it was an immediate yes, because I actually had a very similar idea. I like a couple of years prior, when I first got into the Wim Hof stuff prior to starting this ice, ice church thing, I was like, dang, there’s nowhere to like go and do breath work on a daily basis from people who know what they’re doing and how to guide it. And, and I, I was like, I can.

I can kind of coordinate other teachers within the Wim Hof community and maybe create this online thing. And then Ice Church started and that kind of like got pushed to the side because it was like, well, we’re just doing it right here locally at my house. What’s better than that? So they came to me with this idea and they said, hey, we’re already waking up and doing our practice in the morning. Let’s just broadcast it and see how people respond to that.

Um, so we started a Facebook group and we’re taking people’s payment for, through PayPal manually, just to see how it went. And, um, you know, we, we kind of cultivated a pretty quick, um, little group of people around like 60 people, I think in our first month, which was pretty cool. Um, and then it just developed from there. And really, really the idea was like, Hey, just show up, breathe with us and see what happens. We’re not going to spend time.

talking about the why and giving you the reasoning and the science and all those things. This is an opportunity to just come and practice, get out of your head and into your body and see what happens. And from there, people wanted to know more, you know, they were feeling transformation and all these things changing in themselves and they wanted to know more. So that was really kind of like the birth of the educational side of our platform. So, yeah, I don’t know.

took us all over the place, but that’s kind of where we’re at now.

Martin

No, no, it’s cool to know the journey, you know, from surfing into breathwork, into ice church. I love that. I’ve not heard of that before, but no, really cool. And I guess it was, it seems like it was quite a fast progression for you, like from not knowing breathwork to then just going all in on it. So I’m curious to hear like, what was it that you experienced when you did that first session with Luke?

What hooked you? You know, like what did you experience that you were like, wow, I need to, I want to go further into this. I want to go to Poland and do a trip and just sort of go all in on it. Like what, yeah, what were you experiencing in those early sessions?

Reis 

Yeah, I think a number of things. Number one was just the like pure energy that was created through just breathing, you know, feeling my body buzzing and tingling and just feeling like this sense of power and strength and then also like just the way my mind kind of got really quiet in the midst of all that. And I think those two things alone were just like, Whoa, okay, like, I tried to meditate and, you know, all

I think a lot of people have struggled with it. It’s like, okay, sit down, pay attention to your breath, let your thoughts come and go, you know, all those things. And it’s like, it’s challenging for us to do that. We’re so external and to come internal is really hard. And I feel like breath is sort of a bridge into that, you know, it’s more active, right? We’re actually breathing and moving. And a lot of those same things that we come to at say the 20 minute mark of a meditation.

we can get there a little bit quicker through breathing, and then also have some other kind of impact and change in our state and our mind and body and all those things. So that was really like kind of what hooked me. And I think that’s pretty common for a lot of people. It’s like, you feel high, you know, I mean, simple as that. I think the challenging part is, is that we start chasing the high and…

And then that’s when things start to change. Our body is very intelligent and starts to adapt. And then some of those things don’t, some of those sensations don’t necessarily feel the same way as they did when we started. And then we start pushing and chasing it and that can lead to other issues. But I think, you know, kind of what I found is that like experience, experiencing the.

all the things that you can feel through breathing and it doesn’t have to be like a big intense breathing session. It can just be like something simple. That sort of is like the gateway into more curiosity, you know? And that’s, I think, why our business was successful was in the beginning was like, let’s like come and have the experience. And I think as humans, we want to know the why and we want to understand.

how to do it right and all of those things. And if we can just allow ourselves to experience something first, then those things become even more impactful because we’ve had that felt sense in our body. It’s like, you gotta see it to believe it. Well, you gotta feel it to understand it. So I think that is super important just along the journey of breathwork and kind of getting things going. It’s like, that’s…

Really, it’s like, just give yourself the opportunity to experience it, and then from there, it’s likely there’s gonna be some, yeah, it’s likely there’s gonna be some things going off in your brain that you’re like, okay, there’s something to this, so.

Martin 

Okay, now sort of like, I guess once you jump into the theory, then it’s much easier to understand because you’ve had the experience before. Um, it sounds like it. Yeah. And, uh, that’s something you really like. Yeah.

Reis 

I think so. Yeah, it’s like the science of it solidifies.

I was just saying the science is like kind of what solidifies.

Martin 

There was one thing. Yeah, super cool that I thought that you mentioned was around the sort of gateway into meditation, because I’ve experienced that too, where, you know, you want to meditate. And I think a lot of people want to meditate. But yeah, that like, to go from that, you know, the start to the 20 minute point, you know, in the experience that you have 20 minutes into a meditation.

can be like a very difficult journey. A lot of people have, and a lot of reasons why I think people stop, and also a reason why I haven’t stayed consistent with it myself. So it sounds like breath work can be a little bit of that easier physical, something you can sort of grab onto that’s not just like, okay, I’m just me with my thoughts, like here’s something actually a bit more, as you said, going from that external to the internal, sort of a bridge in between. So I never actually thought of it like that, but.

Yeah, I guess is there quite a close connection between meditation and breath work?

Reis 

Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of meditation practices are breath awareness, you know, so it’s like paying attention to your breath, watching your breath. And in itself, that is a form of breath work, you know, kind of break it down into like breath awareness and conscious breathing. And, you know, the awareness piece is like a sort of that initial part and then the conscious breathing is like where you actually come in and start changing and maneuvering, moving your breath.

And then that has a lot of physiological changes that are going to help to quiet your mind and make you feel different things in your body. Um, so yeah, I think it can be an easier gateway for, for a lot of people. Um, and, and then potentially open up like the ability to be in that sort of quiet space without moving your breath. You know, it’s like, it’s kind of like.

baby steps in. So yeah.

Martin 

Yeah, yeah, that’s cool. And you know, for people that are listening out there that have not tried breath work, you know, but have thought about it, or maybe this is the first time they’re sort of, you know, learning about it. I guess what are some of the I guess

big misunderstandings or misconceptions that you see people have around breath work.

Reis

Um, really that it’s not one size fits all. We’re all different. We all breathe different, move different. We all have different life experiences, things that have happened to us. And so there’s not just like, okay, breathe this way. And it’s going to, that’s the way, you know? And, and I would say also breath work is not a fix all anyone who tells you like, Hey, you do breath work and it’s going to solve all your problems run the other way because it’s not true.

It can certainly help with some things, but I think most importantly, it helps to create greater self-awareness. When we become more aware of ourselves and then more aware of how that is being projected outward, then we start to have a little bit more agency because we actually have a choice when we can observe and see how we’re responding or what…

what our reactions are to things. And as we start practicing with the breath, it also gives us an opportunity to notice our breath at certain times. So then we have that ability to like, oh wow, I noticed I was just holding my breath. Why am I doing that? Oh, because of this. And okay, now I need to actually breathe in a certain way to like re-engage me or lead me to where I’m trying to go.

Um, so I think that’s, that’s really, um, two things that I think are super important, you know, like, no, we’re not all the same. So we need to be adaptable and we need to kind of be willing to try different things to see what works for us. And something that might work really well in the beginning might not. It might change over time. So it’s like, I don’t know, I kind of look at it as like ongoing investigation, ongoing like studentship.

where we’re always trying to learn more and always trying to adjust and adopt to what’s going on in our life. And, um, so yeah, I think, you know, those I would say are two really important things. Um, and, uh, yeah.

Martin 

Yeah. It’s super interesting. Like, you know, I catch myself throughout the day as well. Now it’s having a little bit more awareness around my breath and just interesting how in different situations you start to breathe differently. You know, obviously we’re all used to, you know, you go for a run and you start breathing heavy or something like that. But

really noticing if you’re like intently working on a project or even right now on this podcast, you know, like sort of getting started, like just monitoring a little bit. Okay. How, how is my breathing? Um, where is it? Maybe a bit stuck, um, in different tasks or when, you know, you’re feeling really good and free and, and happy, like how are you breathing and just noticing the differences, uh, between the two, I think is, is really interesting. And I guess that probably is more around the breath awareness side. Um, but I’ve, you know, personally found

that useful for me to just understand a little bit closer and then okay then Yeah, realize a little bit where it’s stuck and actually start to breathe a bit deeper again you know in through the nose and then sort of a bit of a deeper breathing practice, but Certainly, I need to yeah dive into this world a bit more or would like to There’s something really interesting on your website, you know when we first got in touch that I saw pointed out which is

You know, breath work is what yoga was 20 years ago. And I really, really like that. So I’m keen to hear a little bit from you like about, yeah, what is the movement that’s happening? Why is that the case that, you know, breath work is the new movement and maybe in some ways that you’d know new yoga.

Reis

Yeah, I think yoga 20 years ago was pretty fringe. It was maybe seen as like, oh, this like hippie weird practice. People didn’t really understand it. And now fast forward to where we are now, it’s pretty commonplace that people are doing yoga. It’s all over the world and every town and city has yoga studios.

it’s widely accepted that it’s a very beneficial practice. And so I think breathwork is sort of like at that same place that yoga was. But I think what we’re seeing now is that the acceleration to the point of where yoga is now, breathwork, I believe, has the potential to go even quicker. And we’re already seeing it, it’s happening. And I think for a number of reasons, number one is breathwork breathing.

practice in conscious breathing is high impact, low, or yeah, high impact, low effort. So we’re, we don’t really need to do much other than just focus on our breath and change it. We don’t need to go put our yoga gear on and roll out a mat or go to a studio. We can just do it right here right now. And it doesn’t take much to be able to have an impact on yourself. It could even just be one breath has the ability to impact.

your state of being, your nervous system, all those things. So, and couple that with, you know, during COVID and the pandemic, we had a respiratory virus so people were very focused on that. So that amplified, you know, our awareness to our breath and just overall respiratory health. And I just think that like people are more open and searching for something to help them.

You know, the mental health crisis is obviously accelerating, especially, you know, in the US. And so people are looking for a way to help themselves without maybe necessarily resorting to a pill or some external substance. We’re looking for more of that self-empowerment because the keys of the kingdom are all within here. We’re just not really taught how to access that. And so now we’re learning and understanding that.

And then the other side of it is like, the scientific community is really exploring heavily the impact of breathing. Because of all those things previously mentioned, there’s a lot of focus and attention within the scientific community. So the things that are being studied and brought to light are getting picked up by the mainstream media. Obviously we have social media that can…

kind of proliferate a lot of these things. And I mean, very simply, like, it just, it works. It feels good. And we’re all doing it all day long. And it’s just right here right now. And all we have to do is like focus on it and boom, it’s happening, so.

Martin 

I mean, it’s pretty funny, right? It’s something that we literally do every moment for our entire lives and we it’s not normal for us to be like I mean, we’re sitting here talking about it as like a new movement and it’s I mean, it’s something that we do literally every moment of our entire life You know, why is this not something that we just learned from a young age like that different of course there’s little stuff that we learn but

It’s never something that’s really intimately taught, is it, in our lives. So I don’t know, I just sort of had that realization there that, yeah, it’s like, you know, we pay so much attention and effort into things that, you know, we don’t spend a whole lot of time on, but breathing for how important it is. And just a lot of people would have almost no knowledge about it, you know? So that’s really, really interesting.

Like, who would you say? Obviously, it’s a bit for everyone, you know, everyone sounds like everyone can benefit from breathwork. But more specifically, on the teaching side, so because I know you guys, you know, you have your teacher training that you do and help people sort of implement, you know, their breathwork into their teaching practice. Who would consider getting into teaching what different professionals

Would the teacher training that you have be suitable for and how can they sort of implement it into their different professional fields?

Reis 

Yeah, it’s a great question and very similar to like who is breathwork for teaching, breathwork, facilitating breathwork, being a breath coach can really be applied to like more and more we’re seeing like any other profession. And, um, within our teacher training, we’ve had obviously people who are coming in who want to just be a breath coach. And then we have other people who come in who already have like maybe a modality that they’re teaching or, or facilitating or, um,

They are just looking for another tool to be able to add to their toolkit of what they can offer. So, you know, we’ve had yoga teachers, I think is obvious, Pilates teachers, any sort of fitness trainer, those types of people, obviously people are moving their body, they’re very physical, and being able to connect the breath to that to potentially increase performance, increase recovery.

increase just that body awareness. I think those are, those go hand in hand. And then, you know, as you get outside of that, like people, other sort of, um, like health and wellness practitioners from, um, hypnotherapists, massage therapists, other body workers, um, you know, it’s another kind of gateway into getting people to change and sort of correct.

their bodies in a way. Then we have like even school teachers. So we’ve got school teachers who have come through our training that are like, yeah, I could apply this to my classroom because I think just the dynamic of how kids are interacting and engaging with the world has changed because of technology and phones and all of that. So it’s a way for teachers to like be able to integrate a little bit more.

Sort of, I don’t know, like.

the ability to transition differently in class, you know, and to be able to bring kids together in a different way, which has been really cool. We have a guy in Florida who came through our training and he teaches elementary school kids, and he’s known as the breath guy at his school because his kids, they come in from lunch or recess and they’re doing some breathing before they go into whatever they’re doing next because maybe they’re super like.

just heightened in their energy because they were just outside playing. Okay, let’s bring it down so then now we can focus and now we can go do our work. So there’s, you know, if it’s into that, we also have other people who are like executives in a corporate company where they’re like, okay, I can use this as a tool to like facilitate.

communication and our meetings, you know, they open their like, weekly check-in meeting with breathing. So there’s that side of things, you know, and then I think there’s other like, sort of obvious ones that are, you know, therapists, right? Like, we can, you can utilize, you know, someone comes into your office, and maybe they’re in a heightened state, they’re agitated, they’re overwhelmed, or maybe they’re just like not necessarily feeling

connected to you. So they’re not going to like divulge whatever it is that they might be there for. And so, you know, using the breath to like co-regulate to bring someone in to make them feel safe, to kind of get them out of their head, to slow them down. So it just, it’s just one of those things, like you said before, like we’re all breathing all the time and we’re never taught how to actually utilize it to our benefit.

And so it really can be applied to any person and any profession. Some of you might have to get a little bit more creative with it, but it really works. I mean, another example would be we have a woman who’s like an esthetician and another woman who is a hairstylist and they use it with their clients, like while they’re in the chair cutting their hair, you know, like you wouldn’t.

You wouldn’t think that would be something, but… Yeah, so the hairstylist, she’s also a reiki master, so she’s obviously using energy work while she’s cutting hair and doing hair. But then she’ll just get someone to relax and just have them do some box breathing or something really simple. So it’s just…

It’s also like a way to differentiate yourself too, because we’re still kind of on that fringe side where it’s not necessarily commonplace that people are doing this. I mean, we’re seeing it more and more obviously, but it’s just a cool thing. Like, the hairstylist who does breath work, like who does that? So.

Martin

Yeah. No, no, I think, no, absolutely. There’s so many applications. I mean, my parents actually own a daycare, like a preschool, kindergarten in Australia. And I know that they’ve done meditation with the kids and stuff before, but actually I think

I’m not sure if they’ve done breath work, but I’m definitely going to let them know because yeah, I can just imagine, you know, it’s like with the school teacher, kids coming back in, you know, the energy is high from, from coming outside and then, you know, you’ve got to sort of slow down. And what I find really cool about it too, is in a group setting, it seems like it’s something that really can bring people together. If you’re all collectively doing it, obviously it’s quiet as well. I can imagine, you know, I played football or soccer for many years and I could even imagine like,

I’m not doing it a bit as a team, like before you go out onto the field. Um, or, you know, as you said, the, the professionals in a, in a work environment, doing a bit of a breath work before you have a meeting. Just, you know, it doesn’t need to be much, as you said, like it can just slow down the energy a little bit, bring everyone a little bit closer together. I imagine, um, and center everyone like a little bit closer. Cause yeah, oftentimes we’re particularly.

kids going from outside the inside or changing classes or, you know, in a work environment going from this office to that meeting. And we’re all sort of constantly getting pulled here and there, you know, and, you know, I’ve also had, you know, private sessions with psychologists in the past, too, where, yeah, the start of the session, they do a breathwork just for 30 seconds just to a bit of breathing. And then all of a sudden, it’s just like you take a moment and, you know, you’re there as well. So, yeah, I think

That’s really cool to hear all the different applications did not think hairstyles would come up, but yeah, I’m sure it’s a really cool experience for the people in the chair. Sounds like I would like to try that for sure. I’d love to talk a little bit more about your platform, Outbreath Collective. And yeah, tell us a little bit about sort of the evolution. What did you, like when you first started, you know, you told us a little bit about sort of the, you know,

getting payments through PayPal and Facebook and obviously you’ve evolved a lot since then but take us through a little bit of like your core offerings what you offer to your clients what products do you have yeah would be curious to hear

Reis 

Yeah. So, um, as I kind of said before, our, it started as like just these daily breaths and we were leading sessions at 6 AM on, you know, in our time zone, obviously, but, um, 6 AM every morning, the idea was like 15 minutes show up, breathe, boom on with your day, get your practice done in the beginning of the day, it’s going to create space and just build capacity for everything else that’s going to come your way. You can move some energy and great way to wake up.

Um, so we started with that. We had a Facebook group. It was all manual. People were paying us through PayPal and then we would manually add them to the Facebook group and then they would stop and we would have manually move them out. And so, um, obviously there’s been sort of an evolution of that, you know, got a website, we ended up posting the breeds directly on our site. Um, and then more recently we moved to more of a community platform. It’s called circle, highly recommend it. It’s awesome. Um,

And so there’s like this community aspect where people can communicate with one another. There’s discussion boards and direct messaging and the live streams and all of that. So that was sort of the starting place. And this was, we started in, I think August or September, 2019. And so, we kind of had a little jumpstart going into COVID. When COVID hit, obviously everyone went online. We were kind of already there.

and then that sort of amplified things a lot. And right around that time, we got like a lot of feedback from our members that said, hey, okay, I’ve been breathing with you guys for like three or four months now. I wanna know what’s going on under the hood here. So we developed a course, which is called our Breathwork Intensive. It’s a four week course where we get into the science and really it’s kind of designed to be more of like a personal exploration.

Um, so you get to learn the, you know, physiology, psychology, the nervous system, the mechanics of breathing. Um, and that is also coupled with you don’t going and doing the practice on our platform. So it’s really kind of designed to start to build more awareness to your breath, more, um, I guess, buy in on the practice because you’re actually learning what’s going on in your body. And it’s like,

really start to make these cool connections. And so we ran that a handful of times and then people who had gone through that, they’re like, okay, I’m sold. Like, I wanna teach this to my community. So then we developed our teacher training, which is called Breath School. It’s a six month training where we kind of go a little bit deeper on the science because I think.

as a facilitator, it’s really important to understand that because you’re certainly going to get a lot of questions from people like, Oh, why are you doing this? Or why is this happening? What’s going on here? And, and I think more and more that we’re seeing in the breath work world is that because it is growing and it is very popular and trending, there’s just a lot of misinformation. There’s a lot of facilitators that maybe did like a two day teacher training course, and now they’re out like guiding people in, you know, these powerful

experiences. And so, you know, it’s like, okay, we got to, we got to like, really take our time with this and really understand not only the science, but then also the facilitation and how to create a safe space, how to help people integrate how to, you know, work with groups and individuals, it’s very different. And, and also, like our methodology, it’s not even a method, right? We

teach based on the principles, you learn these principles, and then by understanding that, then you can apply it to an individual, a group, based on what the goal is or what they’re trying to improve upon or that sort of thing. So it’s not that one size fits all. It’s really multidisciplinary. What I’m seeing more and more too in the breath space is that there’s this big push

powerful experiences and you know, we see it on social media people having big emotional releases and crying and yelling and all these things and while that can be one Avenue of breath work. That’s not what it’s all about necessarily and I think that Because it looks good on social media or whatever It’s sort of like a deterrent for a lot of people that are like, holy cow like that’s gonna happen to me like

I don’t want anything to do with that. So, you know, most of the work that I’m doing with, particularly with individuals is like, it’s much more pulled back than that. It’s actually looking at your breath as a behavior and how that has been changed and adapted. And over time, the habits that you’ve created unconsciously and then correcting those habits. And then from there, it’s like, okay, now maybe we’ve created a little bit

The apparatus of breathing is a lot more improved. There’s probably some things that have been unlocked just within your own experience. You are more self-aware. And so then we can kind of go into these bigger experiences in a more safe way. So I don’t know, you know, I kind of went off on a little bit of a, you know, tangent there, but I think our teacher training is really, I know for,

for Luke and I, that’s like our, our favorite thing to teach because here we are, like now we get to kind of share our experience and knowledge and, and sort of allow people to now step into that same role. Um, because a lot of people, most people who’ve come to a teacher training like that, they’ve had some sort of transformation in their life. They’ve seen the impact of it and, and they want to like pay it forward. They want to be able to, to help people experience that for themselves.

and empower themselves to really just take the control, take the reins back on their health and wellbeing. So it’s super cool. This year we’re actually working on a level two. So, you know, our breath school sort of now we’re, it’s kind of like we’ve got level one, we’re gonna add a level two that’s gonna kind of go a little bit deeper into some things that we kind of more just scratch the surface on and be able to layer.

that in. So it’s becoming even more comprehensive and, you know, with the goal of like really creating facilitators who know what they’re doing and that are, that are, can do it in a very safe way because it’s pretty wild west out there. And so kind of looking at it as part of our responsibility to help ensure that there’s just

a more positive outcome to this. Because like anything it can get taken advantage of, it can get misused in a lot of ways. It can be very sacred, you know? And I think that’s something that we certainly take to heart because we’ve both had very sacred experiences within it. So, yeah.

Martin 

Yeah, no, it’s really cool that you’re at the point where you’ve both had that positive experience in your own life and then obviously educating others to then go on and as you said, pay it forward, bring more people to be exposed to breathwork. So that’s a really cool sort of amplification effect.

of running an education business. And, you know, be curious to hear what do you, you know, because obviously community’s been a big part of what you guys do, and it’s really where it sort of started with you as well. You know, what do students say sort of is the best part of being part of the, you know, the Breath Collective community and sort of what have you guys done to, yeah, build the best experience for your community as well?

Reis

Well, I think that’s the ongoing challenges to continually create a better experience and finding ways to do that. One of the challenges has been that our practice is like, uh, it’s sort of like a one to none, right? Like you can see us as the facilitator on the screen, but everyone else is like in the background and you can’t actually see them. Yeah. You can see like the number and the list of people who are there and there’s the ability to like comment. But, um,

there’s not like this necessarily ability to like see each other and connect and interact in that way. So that I think has its own challenges. I know as a facilitator, it can be hard at first. But one thing that I have heard time and time again is that there’s a difference between doing the Breathe live with us and then doing it with like on the recording on demand. Yes, they’re still they’re still both amazing and great. But the ability to

the opportunity to be there with other people and know, even though you can’t see them, know that people are there with you doing it and experiencing it with you is powerful. So that sort of proposes another challenge where it’s like, okay, how do we be able to provide people the live experience more? And we’re just not really at that point yet. I think it would require our…

you know, subscribership to grow pretty substantially and then kind of adding more classes for different time zones and, and that sort of thing. Um, and you know, I think, I think we’ve also layered in like in-person experiences. So whether that’s retreats or just like in-person workshops or gatherings and different things around our community here, yeah, we can’t reach everyone worldwide that’s part of our community, but

having these opportunities to bring people together so that they can actually connect is super powerful. The breadth for, you know, various different reasons really has this way to like bring people together and you feel super connected. And then, you know, I think just technology is challenging too, because some people are really good at it, other people aren’t. So how do you really make it simple for people to like get into this thing to connect?

to have it right there on their phone or their computer. And so, you know, continually trying to kind of explore how we do that. And I think, yeah, part of what we hear also is just people like the humanness of it, you know? It’s pretty raw. We don’t have like the highly curated live streams. It’s like basically coming.

We’re inviting you into our home, into our practice, and come and breathe with us. We don’t have fancy equipment. We don’t have all the bells and whistles. It’s pretty rudimentary. People are, we’re just waking up and getting into it too. So I think people really connect to that because it feels real. It’s not this like highly produced thing, like you would see something from something like Nike or whatever. It’s very human and raw.

And so trying to, trying to maintain that because so much of what we see externally is so polished. Right. And so it’s like, no, it’s just, we can leave that for someone else. We’re, we’re just here to like, be who we are to express our, um, unique sort of approach and, and values and methodologies and ideas and, and for whatever reason that’s connecting people are enjoying that. So I think that’s, um,

You know, also in the, in the wellness world, it’s like, everyone’s a guru. Um, and I’m certainly not a guru. I’ve got all my flaws and all my things that are in my way. And I’m continually trying to learn and be better and, um, and just share my journey along.

So yeah, I think just keeping it real.

Martin

Yeah, that’s really cool. I mean, I think, yeah, exactly. I think anyone that’s exposed to your brand, the first thing they’ll notice is that strong human touch. It’s real. You can tell that straight away there’s a community around our breath collective and what you’ve built. And yeah, absolutely. I think people are craving that. And I think, you know, we work in advertising and actually…

A lot of the times what we find super interesting is some of the highly polished stuff, as you said, just doesn’t resonate and you can spend so much time producing all this high production expensive content that just flops. And the iPhone image that you took three years ago performs really, really well. So I think you guys are striking a really nice balance between…

you know, having a well presented brand and really good products, as well as, you know, as you said, keeping it real. So, um, definitely keen to see you guys keep doing that. And, um, on the, you know, online education, running an online education business, uh, side of things, be curious to hear like since the beginning, what have been some of the growth methods that have worked best for you guys? Like what has been some of the things that have stood out that have really helped you grow your customer base?

over time would be great to hear what’s worked well for you in that side of things.

Reis

Yeah, that’s been something I think we’ve been fairly fortunate to have fairly steady growth organically. Up until recently, we haven’t really had to spend a lot of money on growing. And I think part of that is…

just that kind of more keeping it real style. I think that has been beneficial. And we’ve had some kind of other figures along the way who have kind of promoted us and share about it because they’ve come along, they’ve experienced it. We also like, I think,

One of the things too is just listening to what you’re being told. What your audience is telling you is going to play into what people actually want. Because I can be in my head about, oh, it needs to look this way and it needs to be this. But I’m different actually from my audience because I’m the one who’s actually bringing it to them. And so there’s a lot of blind spots that happen.

Fortunately, we’ve had a community that’s been willing to communicate and tell us what they want. And so our ability to take that away and then how do we implement that or how do we create something to address that? I think those things have been part of our ability to grow because that’s what people want something. So like, give it to them.

And then, um, I think part of it too, is just like the building of the community. And in particular, like through our teacher training, now we have these other people that are out there facilitating and sort of, they’re, they’re proud to be a part of our community to hang the OBC flag and so having them sort of out there talking about us and, and giving us, um, you know, the respect or credit of like, Hey, this is where I came from.

And, and I think that has been super helpful, you know, and the more times that we’ve run that training, the more of those people that are out there. So, um, I think that has been really cool. And, and also a signal like, Hey, we’re okay. We’re doing something right here because people are, they want to go out and talk about it. Um, so yeah. And then, you know, I think it, it always hits like a certain inflection point where it’s like, okay, now we gotta like start.

doing some different things, which is kind of where we’re at now. Um, and it’s been cool. I mean, we’ve made it like four years, five years with, um, really just like kind of being organic and scrappy. And, um, and now it’s like, okay, we want to, we want to keep growing. Like we got to do some, do some different things, kind of put your big boy pants on a little bit. Um, which is scary and all. It’s all good though, too. It’s just part of it.

Martin

Part of the journey, part of the journey. Yeah. And I think a lot of brands actually with a similar timeline to you, you know, obviously with COVID there was this like eruption in the online education space, like a lot of businesses that were more in person before suddenly just went completely online. And, you know, a lot of, we saw, uh, you know, a lot of our clients experienced that just sort of a boom during COVID, you know, like whether they were expecting it or not, um, whether they just launched at that time or they’d been, you know, running online courses for a while.

I think anyone in this space really, you know, sort of rode a bit of the wave there. Now, you know, we’re out of that wave. And a lot of businesses in online education space have hit a plateau for, you know, partly due to that, the COVID sort of boom. And, you know, partly due to just, you get to a certain point of your growth journey where, you know, what was working in the beginning suddenly evolves into you needing to do something else to get to that next level.

Um, so it’s, it’s cool to hear that sort of journey for you guys. Um, and on the, the teacher training side, you know, if anyone at this point is considering, uh, you know, becoming a facilitator, uh, in their, their own career, what are some of the things they should take into consideration? Um, you know, before doing a teacher training, what should they sort of be thinking about, or what are some of the main things that they, um, you know, need to understand before?

jumping in and actually doing a certification or a training, a teacher training.

Reis

Yeah, I mean, I think, like I said before, a lot of people have had their own experience that has led them to like, okay, wow, this actually works. And I can like, either work it into this, or maybe I don’t quite know, but I know there’s something here and I want to go out and figure that out. Now, I think the thing is, is like, where do you go for that? Like there’s a lot of teacher trainings out there.

And I think part of that is like doing your research, understanding who it is that you’re going to work with or that you’re gonna choose to do their training with. What are their like credentials and also what are the experiences that people have had from them? Like what are those like testimonials that people are sharing about it? Is it like?

Oh, I had a really good experience and, and it was really cool. Or it’s like, Hey, it really helped me do this, and this. Right. Like you want to know like what the outcomes are and how it actually is being implemented into that person’s career or life or whatever. Um, but I think, you know, there’s, there’s also like a side of it where it’s like, maybe you just want to have the experience for yourself. And we certainly have that.

more often than you would think where it’s like, I don’t know if I’m going to go teach this. I don’t know that I want to, but I really just want to have this knowledge and experience for myself because it’s overall, it’s helping you not only get more in touch with yourself and heal yourself and to understand yourself, but it’s also helping you with leadership, communication, ability to like understand and read people.

It’s also helping with like, you know, just your ability to interact and engage and, um, be, uh, adaptable because so much of it is like, it’s like a puzzle. We don’t know exactly what we’re going to get when we start to work with someone, you know, and it’s so it’s like asking questions and listening and watching and observing, so there’s all these like skills that you gained through the process that.

you can translate into other parts of your life. It doesn’t have to be like, Oh, I’m going to go be a breath coach or breath facilitator. Um, it can, it can just be this experience that you had for yourself, that you’re going to get a lot of different skills that maybe you didn’t intend or, or see that there were, that were there. Um, you know, I, I know through like the trainings that I’ve done for myself, like, yeah, I’m getting a very like niche or, um, focused, like,

information, but the skills that I’m gaining from that, like, there’s so much more than just that information. So I think that’s really one of those like downstream things that you don’t really don’t really think about.

Martin 

Okay, yeah, cool. Good to know that, yeah, people, it’s not just about the being the teacher side, there’s just a personal experience that you can have out of it. That’s, yeah, not about just turning it into something you can put into your career, but lots of other benefits it sounds from it as well. And, you know, as you said, the in-person sort of experience or, I guess, community, tight-knit community, because as I understand it’s, you know, a pretty small, tight-knit group for a longer period of time. So I can imagine.

you build some pretty close connections through those programs. So that’s really cool to hear. Just getting towards wrapping things up. I want to ask you, you know, for anyone that’s listening out there that’s sort of thinking about starting an online education business or currently, you know, running an online education business with online courses or memberships, you know, what advice would you give them for

for running and working a business in this space.

Reis 

Um, I would say first and foremost, like keep it simple. It’s easy to get ahead of yourself and try to make things overcomplicate things. Um, I mean, I already touched on it, but like be in touch with your community and ask them what they want and really listen. Um, sometimes you gotta like kind of look underneath the surface for the clues and the crumbs, um, cause you know, I mean, I’m sure everyone here has gotten like a survey and fill out this survey and like people like

it’s hard to get information from people. Um, so I think that there is, um, this sort of like need to like really understand what people want and then to be willing to adapt and iterate and change. Um, and, and just continually evolving. Um, you can’t really just like, Hey, set it and forget it. You know, like even right now, currently we’re, we’re sort of updating and revamping our breath. We’re content. We taught it, you know,

13, 14 times already. And now we’re, we’re re doing it. We’re re kind of establishing, okay, all these things have changed within our own understanding and experience. And then we’ve also learned X, Y, and Z. Okay, let’s, let’s adopt it. So I think that that’s super important. Yeah, I don’t know. I’m trying to think of what else, but I’m sure there’s, there’s plenty of other things to do.

And then, yeah, I think one other thing that I can think of is like, yeah, online is great, but then how can you also create a place where people can come together in person? Um, because the online space is definitely, there’s a lot of noise. There’s a lot going on there. And we, I think as humans, part of our nature is to be with other humans. Um, and a lot of people are craving that.

And so it’s like, fine, like create the place for where people can kind of find other people like themselves. Um, because we all, we all need that. We all need to be connecting and just with all the technology and computers and phones and everything, that’s like keeping us disconnected from that in-person experience, I would say if you can find a way to hybridize it. That’s awesome too.

Martin 

Yeah, yeah. No, it sounds like in so many aspects, like it seems like we’ve all gone through an evolution here over the last decade or so, very much like, you know, life was very much in person for, you know, a long time. And then we’ve sort of hit this remote revolution of a lot of people, you know, being able to work remote and that, you know, obviously you get so much more freedom.

in what you can do and where you spend your time, but it can be isolating in that because you’re not this one cohesive group moving together. Everyone’s got different things they want to do. And I was thinking about this on the podcast I did yesterday of, you know, so long working remote, then yeah, getting a bit of that craving for back being in a group and in person. And it’s, as I said before, I think you guys have struck a really cool balance between, you know, you’re an online education brand with an in person experience as well.

I think they feed each other really nicely as well. And I think people can go from that online education experience, like the way you guys have got the business set up is like they come in through your online education products and sort of progress through into what can be a pretty cool immersive experience in person. So as I said, I think that’s great advice. And I think something, you know, establish education brands or online education brands should yeah, could definitely start.

implementing into their setup. So cool. So thanks so much. If people want to learn more about our breath collective and what you guys are doing, where should they go?

Reis 

Our breath collective.com, OUR, breath collective. That’s probably the easiest way. We’re on Instagram. That’s kind of our main social channel. Those two places would be where you can find all the information on what we got going on.

Martin 

Nice, nice, super cool. Reis, thank you so much, man. It’s been great to have you on. And we did a pretty good show here, I think in terms of volume. So, yeah, super nice to have you on. And yeah, I think, you know, for anyone listening out there, it’s sort of probably been a really good introduction or exposure into breath work and understanding, yeah, what’s going on in this space. And hopefully, yeah, we’ve inspired a few people to jump in and can definitely.

recommend anyone listening to go over and check out what they’re doing at our Breath Collective. I just want to say thanks again and look forward to seeing what you guys do in the year ahead.

Reis 

Thank you so much. It was great chatting.