Burnout, Breakthroughs & Breath: How Brendon Hansford Built a Global Wellness Brand in Months

Burnout, Breakthroughs & Breath: How Brendon Hansford Built a Global Wellness Brand in Months

Norbert Orlewicz: Welcome to between two Coaches, a Digital Mentors podcast for coaches, consultants, authors, speakers, and experts. I am your host, Norbert or Leitz, and in each episode we have a conversation with successful and emerging thought leaders in the mentoring industry to share experiences, insights, and practical strategies to make a bigger impact. Our work. 

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Today's guest, I am very excited to speak with this gentleman here. Today's guest is Brendan Hansford of breathwork.com. Brendan is a world renowned choreographer and director who has worked with some incredible companies and global icons, such as Sam Smith, David gta, rod Stewart, and Normani.

But his journey. Didn't stop on the stage. He is now the founder of IMD Breath work. It's a global movement that's making breath work accessible and transformative for people around the world. Through a powerful mix of somatic work, sound therapy, and ancient breath techniques, Brendan helps people heal, release, and reconnect with themselves on a deep emotional level.

From creative director to breathwork, mentor and entrepreneur, his story is a powerful example of what it means to reinvent yourself and help others do the same. welcome to the conversation.

Brendon Hansford: what an intro was that? Me?

Norbert Orlewicz: Yeah, man, you've got, you've got quite the story. I mean, I've been checking you out online watching some of your I interviews and and videos, and you've had quite an incredible journey of transformation.

I'm really excited and honored that you are here. To join us. So gonna start, start off here with a bit of a deep question, just to get this conversation started here. Okay. Why do you think that your work, breath work, coaching, mentorship, this business, you've started the creative work that you do, why do you think that it's more important now than ever before, given all the rapid changes that we're seeing in the world today?

Brendon Hansford: Wow. Uh, where do I start? So I actually, it was about two years ago.

I remember saying this to a friend of mine that I genuinely believe that the next 10 years is all gonna be about healing. And obviously with I, I think the birth of AI has had a lot to do with, not to be a conspiracy theorist, but it has, you know, it's very much taking people's jobs.

One, um, it's definitely becoming people's therapist, which is a little bit scary. We know we've all done it. Hey, ask me a bunch of questions. Tell me about myself. And then, you know, chat, GPT literally diagnoses you. But there is so much going on in the world at the moment. Like how many wars are happening at the moment?

It's, you know, there's so much devastation, there's so much cruelty, you know, I believe that prejudism and racism is back up on the rise. You know, I don't think it's something that's disappeared and gone forever. If anything, I think the polarization of governments, countries, the planet. Is just nuts at the moment.

Like you just gotta look at who's in charge to realize that, you know, there is, there is so much polarization right now and there is so much hurt and so much past trauma coming back to bite us all in the ass. Um, and if you believe in generational trauma, there's, you know, there's, there's a ton, you know, there's a lot of people that believe they, uh, have been treated badly in the past, which they have.

And that's now coming back into play. And then the other far side is coming back in and giving their, it's just, I believe it's polarization that is causing, it's really hard to put into words, but it's just causing such a divide around the world. And of course, when you have a divide, you have hate. When you have hate, you have people being horrible to each other, which creates trauma, which creates problems, which creates people who are angry and people who are angry.

It's not a good recipe, you know? And the irony is, is it's also creating more loneliness. You know, after Covid, we all got used to being indoors. Ton of people got scared to go outside.

You know, there's so many things that got created. So you've got a bunch of anger, you've got loneliness, and you've got separation, and you've got this massive divide across the world.

It is a boiling pot, right? It's gonna explode. If we don't do something about it, it is gonna explode. And no one really believes in the government anymore. No one believes in pharmaceuticals anymore. Everything has a, side effect. You take this drug, there's a side effect.

There's always a payoff, right? There's, I forget the correct word for it, but you do one thing that's you think is good, and there's always.

Norbert Orlewicz: Those unintended consequences.

Brendon Hansford: you. I couldn't think of that word. Um, the consequences are always there and that's what's been happening at the moment and this is why I believe breathwork is become so fundamental and it's still so new. Like not many people know where it is. We get messages every single day going, what is this?

You know, what is breathwork? Let alone what is IMD breathwork, which is what I do. And what I'm trying to do is educate people that they can actually. Heal themself. They can help themselves with something that's fundamentally free. You know, once you understand the ratios, once you understand the science, it's free.

You can breathe and release things that you probably even forgot existed.

You know, I can tell you a bunch of stories, but I don't want to go off on a crazy tangent just yet 'cause I know you've got a million questions coming my way. So if I start going now, you won't stop me.

Norbert Orlewicz: Okay. Which, which I love, I'm sure, I mean, we could probably do a three hour Joe Rogan

Brendon Hansford: Yes, we.

Norbert Orlewicz: I, I, we could probably have an amazing conversation, but I'm gonna try to keep you on track. So, uh, we're gonna dive into IMD breathwork and what makes it unique, what makes it specific, what the process is. But tell me the story. First of all, I mean, you are a successful choreographer and film director. You're working with these amazing companies and brands and superstars around the world. I mean, gimme a little glimpse of what that life was like and then what happened to transition you into going down this path of breath

Brendon Hansford: Well there, there is a certain irony here. 'cause yes, I've worked with a ton of famous people. I've worked with Sam Smith, rod Stewart Ley, David Gtta, BB Rexer. I've worked with a ton of brands like B-B-C-I-T-V, Panasonic, Reno. There's like, I've got a list of a huge amount of brands on my website. You know, I was even one of the creative directors for the opening of Atlantis in, uh, Dubai, where Beyonce killed it.

Like she absolutely smashed it on stage. I was one of the creative directors for the event. I didn't get to work directly with Beyonce, which is very annoying, but. I saw her once. She smiled at me, and that's enough. I'm happy. But I got to work on the event. And so the overall direction of the event. So I've done some amazing, amazing things.

However, the creative life and that life of living the dream, you know, it was always a hustle. I would do a job with Sam Smith. I'm done. That's it. Everyone's gonna hire me. I'm, I'm, I'm in it now.

Nothing. Back to the hustle again. Back to the hustle again. Back to the hustle again. So it was always, how many emails can I send? How many phone calls can I make? How many coffee meetings can I go on? How many, you know, I did. I'll tell you a story, like going back a little. When I first became a choreographer back in my early thirties, and I'd switched from being a dancer to a choreographer, and I was trying to think of a way to stand out.

So we are going back, like, we're going back like 11, 12 years now, right? So I bought a ton of little glass bottles of a cook and I bought some jelly beans, and I put some jelly beans in there. I printed my business card onto scroll like paper, dyed it in tea, rolled it up, tied it up, and found out who the managers were for these production companies, and delivered one hand, delivered them to every company.

I got three replies to that, which led to my first big job for Reno. So yeah, you know, finding creative ways to go around. It was great and I love doing it. But when you've been doing it for 20 plus years and you are still hustling, I. Every, like you said, everything has consequences, right? Everything has a, a light and a dark.

You know, the light side is I got to work with some insane people, some insane companies on some insane sets and shows, and traveled the world and got to do incredible things. But then coming back to it, it was always like, okay, where's the next job coming from? You know, how am I paying my rent? And, you know, living in London and anyone from London listening to this will completely understand.

It's so expensive. You can have an amazing job, but you're still living paycheck to paycheck, to paycheck, um, it wasn't until I, I moved to Dubai that I actually found some financial security, you know, uh, Dubai's an amazing place. Like, absolutely incredible. My career just went zoom here because in London there was 10 of me, right?

10 of me fighting for the same job. Here, there was just me. So I put myself into a pond where I was a big fish finally, and I could do a million different things, so they hired me. Whereas back in England, it was like if you did a million different things, they were like, oh, you don't specialize. We, we want someone to specialize.

Yeah. But I'm bloody good at all of them, you know, like I'm, I'm really good at all of them. So I can do all of that and I can, you know, monitor the teams and I can make sure they're doing their job. But it's not a specialty is it? But here they appreciate that, they appreciate talent here, so you, you get paid more is the short answer.

So I completely forgotten your question to remind me

Norbert Orlewicz: Uh, no, it's good. It's good. The, the shift. The

Brendon Hansford: this shit

Norbert Orlewicz: successful

Brendon Hansford: what happened, right? Yeah.

Norbert Orlewicz: most of us are doing, are hustling.

Brendon Hansford: So

Norbert Orlewicz: what

Brendon Hansford: that was the career. And don't get me wrong, I do love that career and I still do creative jobs. So I'm at a luxury point now where I can say no to stuff and I can say yes to something that actually finds my interest. So what happened? Okay. Uh, rewind A few years. I was in an extremely toxic situation.

I probably don't need to say anymore. Everyone's going. Yeah. Understand, and I had this idea, uh, you know, I, I wasn't really spiritual. I was kind of into Pilates and a little bit of yoga and, but that's only 'cause I was a dancer. So I physically moved my body. I knew nothing about yoga. I still don't, you know, I knew loads about Pilates 'cause we had to learn it at a dance school.

So I was kind of. Physically aware, but I wasn't into anything spiritual and I still, I'm still really not, but we'll get into that. So I went to Bali with this kind of intention to find myself and hopefully help someone else that came with me. And I found breath work and I found sound healing. A lot of the other stuff I thought was a little bit too far for me.

Yeah. Yeah. That. Breath work really resonated with me. And it is actually quite funny 'cause the first session I did breath work, I didn't know I was gonna do breath work. I signed up for something called jungle yoga and I thought I was gonna be doing a downward dog next door. A monkey, as you would expect, right?

Jungle yoga. So I got there and we sat with cross legs, which at the time was extremely painful for me as a, a man trying to flex into his hips. So we were there for an hour breathing, breathing into the different chakras and all this stuff. And again, I'm sat there going, what are we doing? But the person I went with started bawling their eyes out and they were crying and they were releasing.

And I just remember thinking, wow, I wonder why that is. Like, what, what is it? What is it? Because I'm that person. My A DHD kicks in and goes, I want to know everything about what has happened. So I got into looking into breath work and understanding the kind of science behind breath work. And then I looked into conscious connected breathing.

So somatic breath work, transformational breath work, which is the thing that got me hooked. 'cause I did a transformational session, uh, doing some conscious connected breathing. For about an hour and 10 minutes, and I cried, and I cried, and I screamed, and I released, and my whole body locked up and I shook and I lost connection with my body.

Disappeared into alternate states of consciousness. Came back and I was like this for about two days afterwards, just like what happened. What happened. And so I carried on down that journey. And of course, A-D-H-D-I made it a career. So I trained up, I became an instructor and I worked through so much of my trauma in, in, in three months.

And I always say this, that I did more in three months of breath work than I did with 20 years of talking therapy. And that's not me saying talking therapy is bad. It's not. Talking therapy is amazing, but for me. I did more in this time and I had memories and vivid visualizations of situations from when I was a child that I didn't remember at all.

That was so far gone. I didn't even know I knew it and then I, you know, confirmed it with parents. Did this happen? Did this place exist that I've now imagined in my head? 'cause I'm a creative, I could have made it up. And they were like, yeah, how do you remember that? You were like two years old and then, you know, you find, and then you trace it.

And you realize that that memory is a trigger for a trauma that's been affecting me my whole life for 38, 9 years, giving my age. So, you know, breathwork just completely catapulted me into a completely different state of mind. I managed to walk away from that toxic situation with nothing. I just went, oh, okay, cool.

And the old Brendan would've left a toxic situation. Broken, you know, ignoring everybody, ruining business connections, not showing up for work, doing everything detrimental. Until a few months later, when I picked myself up with this, I Ima I managed to get myself into a powerful position where I could just walk away and I was done.

There was nothing. It was just, there was nothing left. I got rid of everything. It was so weird. And now I can look back and go, oh my God. I was in that because of what happened when I was two years old. And then again, what happened when I was six years old, you know, cemented that trauma and then it happened again when I was 13 years old.

So the le the layer cake, you know, as all the years build up, you then prove to your brain why you've gotta be scared of that, or why you've gotta do that, or why you've gotta attract that, or why you've gotta fix this, you know? Yeah. So.

Norbert Orlewicz: Wow.

Brendon Hansford: That being said, rewind a little bit. I've always been, uh, into filming, editing, and one of the things I've always been into editing is sound.

So I've been a sound editor for 20 plus years, so IMD So IMD stands for immersive multidimensional breath work, right? Is it's spotting the pain points. Now again, a DHD, if you go to a breath class where you can hear everybody.

Norbert Orlewicz: A little.

Brendon Hansford: Yeah, so obviously the solution is to cut off everything. So in our sessions, people wear an eye mask, okay? And we black out their eyes. They wear headphones, which are completely knocking out all the sounds. And I create these sound journeys and, 'cause I've been editing for years, I, I know lots of tricks and fancy little things to do.

And so one of the things I do, which isn't crazy fancy, but it's cool if you've never heard it, I can make the sound come from any direction. So, you know when you're in a cinema and they do that, woo. Oh, that right? There's something called binaural patterning where you can do it with just two. Two speakers, so headphones, and you can make it sound anywhere.

And the same with binaural beats. By having those headphones and creating two frequencies with different frequency sets, you can create a woo woo woo woo woo and put the brain into a certain frequency. I'm jumping a little bit, but within these journeys you've got a main coaching voice. So I write a whole script that lasts an hour and 10 minutes, so I guide you through it.

It's all prerecorded, and then behind you, behind your limbic system. There's this little, there's subliminal voices both right and left, and they sound like they're here and they are just talking to you the whole way through feeding you affirmations, constantly feeding you, you are amazing. You're the best you can do this.

You are gonna live a life of prosperity. You are gonna do all these amazing things. And then you've got the bin beats doing this. Do, do, do, do. Then you've got another frequency that I picked that revolves around your head the whole time and sound effects going left, right, up, down. And it's a huge, the sound journey alone is an experience.

Now combine that with transformative, conscious, connected breathing. And it's like, I have breath work. Instructors come to my class that have never done anything like this, and they can, you know, they come with the attitude like, I know what I'm doing. And then afterwards they're like. That what, uh, I, I don't know what I just experienced.

I, that felt like five minutes or that felt like I've been on a massive journey or I spoke to people and you know, the stories that come out afterwards are just insane. Absolutely insane. And I can talk into the science of the breathwork if you want, but I think you are gonna ask that anyway. So I'll wait.

I.

Norbert Orlewicz: Uh, yeah, I, I have so many questions and then obviously I'm gonna have to experience this for myself. I did one of your like 10 minute quick fix audios

Brendon Hansford: Nice. How was it?

Norbert Orlewicz: It's, it's very challenging. So breath work has been a challenge for me. In my early twenties, I went to theater school and had a really great experience of movement getting into my body, and we did a lot of yoga and breath work and stuff.

That's the most connected I've ever been to my body. So I have this experience with that. I've lost all of that over the years, right? With all the practical aspects of life. I have this one friend who's a spiritual coach. He's a friend of mine, but he is also a spiritual coach of mine, and he's always trying to work with me to get into breath work, and every time he does it with me, I mean, I lose it like I struggle, like that 10 minute breath exercise.

I struggle with pain, with anxiousness, with like uncomfortability. I obviously need. A lot more breath

Brendon Hansford: Yeah.

Norbert Orlewicz: I, I can feel it like this is definitely an avenue, the way you describe the experience. That's okay. The way you describe these experiences sound to me like deep psychedelic experiences, like I just had a friend do ayahuasca.

I've done many times myself. And what you're explaining here, what you're describing is tapping into these different levels of consciousness without the need of any type of external hallucinogens and stuff. 

Brendon Hansford: So, alright, so I need to talk into the whole science of what's happening.

So.

Norbert Orlewicz: Yeah.

Brendon Hansford: the sound journey aside. This is like a compliment, okay? Um, breath work. So when you breathe in a way that we teach you, we breathe, we basically teach you to hyperventilate, right? This is why it freaks you out. So when you're going, and the ironically the journey, the 10 minute journey you did this morning is a very light version, very, very light version of what we do.

Very, like, we tell people to do it, to relax them. So when you breathe conscious, connective breathing, there is no gap between the breath. So when you breathe in and you breathe out, there is no pause. When you breathe normally in daily, daily life, there is a gap at the top and the bottom. Okay? And you'll probably notice it now.

I've told it through the day. You'll be like, oh, I do. I have a little pause at top of bottom. Alright. When we teach you to breathe like this and we work with something called the three part breath, where you breathe into your belly, you breathe into your chest and you let it go, right? So one, you're breathing fast, two, you are taking in a more oxygen than you're letting out.

Okay? That's a key. So ratio wise, when you breathe in. Your heart speeds up. When you breathe out, your heart slows down. So of course when you're breathing in more, you are going into your stress response. You're going into your sympathetic nervous system. You are releasing cortisol, adrenaline, neurotransmitters, so many wonderful things in the body.

Which all get a bad rep, but if you use it correctly, they're actually amazing for you. So coming back when you breathe rapidly like this, you off gas and you let out CO2 really fast. Now, CO2 is a waste product to the body. So it cannot create CO2 fast enough to replace the CO2. You are losing. But you are breathing in more oxygen.

Okay? Now this is, this is the cool part. There's something called the borrower effect, BOHR, right? It's all about influencing the CO2 in the body, right? So the C, depending how much CO2 you have in the body depends how much oxygen you release. So it gets better. I love this part. So there is a, there's a protein called the hemoglobin protein.

It cleans to the red blood cells and it carries the oxygen around the body, right? And if it's getting a lot of CO2. It's a happy protein. It lets go of the oxygen freely and you get extra oxygen in all different places, which is why when you breathe slowly and you slow it down, CO2 builds up, you release more oxygen.

You get that feeling of sometimes a little bit higher, a little bit more relaxed like you are. You are over oxygenating yourself, right? So you get a great feeling. That's why with the yoga practice, you feel so relaxed and you feel so chilled, and actually generally speaking, it is better to slow down your breath in life.

The slower you breathe, the more CO2 comes up. The more oxygen is released, the more you sit in your parasympathetic, which is relax, digest, and rest. Right? And if you're in that session means cortisol is not being released, which means all your body systems, your immune system, your digestive system can work effectively.

Longevity. You live longer, right? Happy days. Rewind. So what we do in our class is we do the opposite. We make you breathe fast, so we lower your CO2. So instantly within 10 breaths, you're gonna feel dizzy and a bit disorientated. Within three to five minutes, you'll feel tingles all around your body. And that's a low CO2 and the lack of oxygen being released.

And it's also to do a calcium ions coming down because of that. And you know, sometimes people get these claw hands. Okay. Uh, it is called technique. Uh, now there is a, there's a big debate about this at the moment, whether it's. Good or bad, whether it's dysregulation or it's not. Now the science is, you know, it is all based on the lack of CO2 and lack of oxygen and the lack of, uh, calcium s being released.

But when it goes too far, it's too far. Your CO2 drops too low. So that's how I base it. Okay. So a little bit of technique is not is cool, but when it gets to painful, bad, bad. We've gone way too far. Yeah. We've gotta slow it right down. And that's why I'm gonna make a proviso here that. If you're gonna do this type of breathing, you need to do it with an instructor that knows what they're doing and can help you control it.

Okay. Because everybody's different. Yeah. Yeah, everybody's different, right? You could react instantly and I could take two hours to get that to the same place you got to in two minutes. So it depends on you and your body and how much CO2 you have. Okay. So coming back again, it's a lot of information here and I'm dumping it on you.

We teach you to breathe fast. Three part breath. We lower the CO2, which means we there there'll be less oxygen coming out to the body. So the hemoglobin creates an affinity for the oxygen that holds onto the oxygen, and you go into vessel constriction, which basically means your body is not getting the oxygen it needs, which is ironic because you're breathing in more oxygen.

You with me so far? Perfect.

Norbert Orlewicz: Yeah.

Brendon Hansford: So then what happens next? This is the fun part, is the brain goes, wow, there's a lack of oxygen. You know, I nearly swore then. But you get the point like, oh my God, there's a lack of oxygen. And it goes, okay, we need to preserve the hard drive. So it sends all the oxygen to your limbic system, your amygdala, your hippocampus, your memories, and your emotions.

But it takes it away from your logical brain, your prefrontal cortex, so, right. Yeah. Yeah. This is where I.

Think about daily life, you're, you are happy and your brain goes, Hey, do you remember that thing you did five years ago where you felt like an idiot? Oh, do you remember that? And you go, yeah, great, thanks.

And then your prefrontal cor kids goes, I don't want to think about this. This makes me feel rubbish. Forget about distract yourself, Brendan, distract yourself. Right? That's what this is doing. But what you're actually doing is you're avoiding actually processing a memory that needs to be processed.

That's why it's coming up. You haven't processed it, and I promise you if you haven't processed it, you'll have a trigger that's constantly getting triggered. Whether you see it or you don't see it, is getting triggered. That trigger turns into stress, which turns into anxiety, which, you know, it develops way up the chain eventually depression, and you get the point, right?

So that's a trigger coming up going, I need to be processed, like come at the frog. Uh, it needs to be processed right. So when we put you into this state where the oxygen's being diverted away from the pre prefrontal cortex, it's called hypocapnia, right? So suddenly this part of the brain goes quiet. Yeah.

This is why in the first five, 10 minutes you'll freak out. You'll struggle. You'll think this is wrong. Something's wrong here. What am I doing? You know, this part of the brain will fight You. Literally imagine starving it of oxygen. Imagine starving an animal or monkey of oxygen, right? It's gonna freak out.

That's what you're doing. So suddenly all the oxygen's going into this part of the brain and all these memories and emotions can come up and be processed and actually let them play through, actually let them be processed in the moment. At the same time, you're releasing serotonin. You're releasing dopamine pretty quickly, and if you breathe deep and if you breathe into that discomfort and you push through, whatever's coming up, your penal gland lights up and goes, what's going on?

What? Wait, wait. There's something wrong here. And releases DMT, which is the same substance you get in ayahuasca magic mushrooms.

So suddenly you are in your limbic system. You are, all these process memories are, you know, unprocessed memories are coming up, your traumas are coming up, and now you are releasing DMT and you can go into an ultimate state of consciousness to actually deal with it and disconnect with the body and let the body release.

Yeah, every, there's a book called The Body Keeps a Score, which is amazing, right? It's all about how trauma gets stored in the body. And it does, you know, when you get activated into your sympathetic nervous system in a moment where something crazy happens and you don't physically release, you have to somatically release it.

The same way the animals doing the animal kingdom, you know, they get chased by a predator, they hide, they get away, and they drop the floor and they shake it out. Yeah. I can't remember which singer, singer it was, but shake it out. Shake it, you know, really shake it out. They literally shake out. Think of it as a toxin.

So the toxin goes into all the muscles and the tissues and the fibers of your body in your brain. If you don't get rid of it after the threat or the scare has passed, it will stay and your nervous system will remember it. So next time something similar happens, you get triggered. And even though you've just met that person for 10 minutes and they triggered you, but you're getting that belly feeling and that chest feeling like you've just been dumped by a 10 year relationship.

'cause you never ever dealt with it. You never actually let that trauma go. You never somatically released it. So yeah. So yeah, that's what's happening in body. That's what we do in breath work and Nan combine that with the sound journeys and the sound healing and the coaching and the way I guide people through these different journeys.

And we have 10 of them now. It's insane. So coming back to your question is, yes, I'm still doing my creative work, but this started off as a single class that I did as a side hustle for a bit of fun because I, I got so much from it, so I wanted to help other people. And then it became two classes, three classes, four classes.

Now I'm making more money from doing this than I am from doing my 20 long year profession. What is going on? And then suddenly I've got breath instructors asking if they can teach it. Now I think I've got 16 different instructors around the world in 16 different cities, and we've only officially, company officially has only been open since September and we've grown so fast.

I've been doing this for a long time, obviously, but yeah, and we, it's just, it's just blew up. You know, like tomorrow I'm on a flight to Riyad to launch a new instructor in Saudi, and then I'm flying straight to Kuala Lumpur to launch a new instructor there and then Hong Kong, and then I'm back to Dubai.

So for the next three weeks, I'm launching a new country every week.

Norbert Orlewicz: Beautiful. And so. nuts. It's in it's incredible. I love that scientific explanation that you just gave me. 'cause I, I understood these things on a very

Brendon Hansford: Yeah. Yeah.

Norbert Orlewicz: but now I fully

Brendon Hansford: There's so much more to it as well. Honestly, I, this is, this is kind of what we actually teach people this in the class, not, not as long as I just said it for you. We do a shorter version 'cause we want people to understand the science and we want people to know that IMD is not a woo woo class.

You're not gonna sing, you're not gonna hold hands, you're not gonna do any sharing. You're not gonna do anything weird. Like you know that Most people would go, I don't wanna do that. That's embarrassing. You show up, you listen. We talk to you, we tell you what's gonna happen. We tell you the signs, you put the headphones on, you put the mask on, you on your own journey for an hour and 10 minutes.

You come back, you listen to us, we talk to you. We tell you what you know. Did this come up? Did you feel this? Who felt this? Everyone puts their hands up. We don't do any sharing. And then when the class is done, we give people 10, 15 minutes to come back around and if they wanna ask any questions, they can, you know, so everyone can come.

Norbert Orlewicz: What's the best way for people to experience this? 'cause obviously you guys have an online presence and you

Brendon Hansford: Yeah.

Norbert Orlewicz: you have some content Yeah. Online and stuff. And you know you've got that, those little meditations that you can do online. But it feels to me like this is something that has to be

Brendon Hansford: It does. Yeah. So

Norbert Orlewicz: Yeah.

Brendon Hansford: don't get me wrong, there are people out there that will do these breathing techniques online with you. I don't believe it's very safe is the short answer. I've, I've done stuff on myself and pushed myself too far and woken up four hours later not having a clue what happened in the last four hours Now.

Norbert Orlewicz: that's one. That's one of the big fears. I fear like I'm gonna

Brendon Hansford: Right. So I didn't pass out. I went so deep into my practice that I was basically in my subconscious, in my ultimate state of conscious for so long. And I, and I know my limits, that's why it's, you know, we don't, we don't do it online because we, we want people to go so deep that they actually deal with traumas from God knows when, and most traumas surface from before the age of seven.

So we actually want them to get there. You cannot do that on your own. It's, it's not safe. 'cause you know, there, there's a lot of contraindications that we talk about at the beginning of class. Like, does anyone have a heart problem, a lung problem, asthma, hypertension, high or low blood pressure? Any recent surgeries?

If you're pregnant, you cannot do this at all. Any medication we should know about? Uh, anyone psychiatrically unstable by as deemed by a professional. You can't, you know, there's, there's so many things that we need to be careful of. Like pregnancy? Absolute. No, no. We are lowering the oxygen release in the body.

Imagine what that does to the fetus. And there are, there are breath work constructors out there that do this and say, oh it's fine up to the first three months. And then you look at the stats and most miscarriages happen in the first three months. So there's so much mis mis knowledge out there at the moment.

'cause breath work is so new and it's a trend and everyone's jumping on it.

Uh, but the 10 minute examples online are sound wise, they're similar. They're not as advanced as the ones we do in class. 'cause obviously I'm not gonna spend. Six weeks creating something that I'm gonna give away for free.

I'm not that crazy. Uh, so they are cool. You can experience 'em. They're great. For every day I do my 10 minute breath practice every single morning, it's all I do. I wake up, I have my coffee, which I know I shouldn't do, but I'm obsessed with coffee. It's my one massive love coffee. I have a beautiful coffee machine where I grind the beans.

It's all a process. Love it. I sit on the balcony, I watch the sun come up over the building, so I get the lights. And then I sit and I do about 10 minutes of breathing every single morning. And I notice the days that I forget to do it. Like I really, the days I do it, I don't notice it. I'm good, I'm productive, I get stuff done.

My A DHD is calm for most of the day, most of the day, but it's, it is now 11 o'clock here, so it's spiking up again. So it, it completely levels me for the day and I just feel amazing. And the days I don't do it, I notice that my attention isn't as quite as good. I lose focus quickly. I didn't get as much done.

I'm more, a little bit more ratty. You know, maybe I'll be like, ah. So I really notice those single 10 minutes at beginning of the day have such a strong effect on my day. So

Norbert Orlewicz: Yeah.

Brendon Hansford: recommendation for people is obviously you are talking about what I'm creating is called the 10 minute Fix. Eventually there'll be 50 of them.

And it'll be like an app and stuff, but we'll get there. Uh, but the point is, at the moment we've got two on the website that are absolutely free. There's one for the morning and there's one. If you've got stress, so there's one you can use all day. Just put your headphones in and just breathe and just follow the guidelines we've given away for free for two reasons.

One, after the class. We want something for people to take away and continue to practice even if they don't come back. And two, you're quite right. If you are not in a place to come to one of our two hour classes, then. Go and experience the 10 minute stuff. But yeah, short version is, I would not do any transformational breath work online, parasympathetic breath work, go all day long, slow breathing, brilliant.

But the fast breathing stuff, I would, this is my advice. I'm sure a million people are gonna comment and disagree, but, but I would, I would steer clear and go and see a local instructor that knows what they're doing and can look after you and guide you through. 'cause it's not just about the breathing, it's also about the trauma relief.

I. That I don't know how you are gonna be after class. You might be in a rage after class and so angry with whatever's been come up for you. You might be crying your heart out afterwards. You might be a bit zoned out still. You know, you, you need someone who knows what they're doing and can deal with that and be there with you after the class as well, you know?

So yeah, there is that.

Norbert Orlewicz: And is, is a experience good enough or do most people want to come for like a retreat, multi-day, that kind of stuff? Like what's,

Brendon Hansford: I love this question

Norbert Orlewicz: me about those experiences.

Brendon Hansford: session. I promise you you'll shift so much if you breathe correctly, and if you follow the instructions and you do everything we ask you and don't, you know, kind of hold back or don't restrict yourself and let go, you will shift so much in one session. I'm not saying we're gonna get rid of all your traumas, but breath work gives you what you need now.

Okay, so whatever is going on with you, whether you realize it or you don't realize it, whether it's subconscious or, or in the front of your mind, it will help you deal with that in the moment. So you'll instantly feel lighter, calmer, more clarity, more in control, more grounded. You know, we have so many people running away like, oh my God, I felt like this.

I felt like this. It was amazing. I got this. My, my favorite, favorite story, I'll tell you one story. This is quite soon into my kind of breathwork career with IMD. He came and did a journey, and at the beginning of the session, he was kind of the, the typical guy looking at me like, I'm talking rubbish, questioning everything I'm saying.

I could see it. And then he did session and he had a, he was crying his heart out. He was releasing, he was shaking, you know, everything was going on with this guy. Afterwards his eyes were like, and he just, I was like, are you okay? Yeah. And he left, right? I said, okay, cool. He's fine. Good. Came back the next week.

Big smile on his face and I went, are you all right buddy? He was like, yeah, mate, I, I'm back. I was like, I know, I can see. Like, you know, how are you feeling? How was it? He goes, I dunno what you did to me last week, but my wife says I'm a nice person now, so I have to come back. I was like, that's just the best story ever.

And he came back, he came to about five sessions. Uh, in a row weekly. And then after that we, I didn't see him until like a couple of months later and he came back for a session or two and then he went off again. So the way I see this, and this is what I see repeatedly, some people come to one session and they're like, my life has changed.

It's amazing. They're normally the people right at the beginning of their journey in terms of learning to heal holistically, you know, using themselves rather than medication. And they, they feel such an impact that they feel so much better than they did before. We will see them in three or four months.

When they want to continue their journey. Then there's the people that have been doing bits and pieces, and they come, you know, because they've, they've tried this, they've tried hypnotherapy, they've tried this, they've been to Bali, you know, they've done all the jobs. They will generally come to about five sessions in a row.

And then after that we see them for maintenance. I think it's kind of like that. And then what happens is another trauma will come up for them that they haven't seen in 10 years, and they're like, oh my God, I met this guy or girl and they triggered me and I haven't felt like this in 10 years because I haven't had the opportunity to feel like this and it was buried and now it's up.

So I want to deal with it. So they come back and you see them for consecutive weeks. Do you see what I mean? So it's an ongoing process. It never actually stops. You chip away.

Norbert Orlewicz: because

Brendon Hansford: Chip away

Norbert Orlewicz: the

Brendon Hansford: players. Like I'll give you exactly like I just told Prime stories. I do. I do it every single week without fail. You'll see videos online, me crying and releasing and showing people that I, I literally live what I preach and I do my morning breath work every day, and some weeks I'm like, I just go and I just feel less stressed.

Then other weeks I cry my heart out and I'm like sobbing and my local instructor here is like holding me like in fetal position. And then. I had this experience where I met this girl, right? I'm, I'm, I'm single, but I met this girl, right? And she just ticked every box for me. It was like, oh my God, I've met the perfect girl.

And she was so communicative with me and there was no games and everything was working great, right? Felt amazing, and then suddenly it just dropped out of nowhere. The communication went from here to here. And I felt, so I'd known this girl like four days, right? Four days. And I was so triggered, I had tightness in my chest and you know, in that organ grinder in your belly when you, you know, when you know you're gonna be dumped and it's like, oh God.

I'm like, why am I feeling this so strong? I don't know this girl. You know, I should be able to just get out, whatever, you know, if you don't realize who I am, that's fine. Go wait. Um, and I had to really think about it, and then I realized. There was a relationship that I was in like eight years ago where the same thing happened.

This person went away to do a job and it became a long distance thing. Oh, sorry. That was a vital part of the story. This was a long distance thing. I met here and then she went somewhere else. And um, and then suddenly I remember the communication dropping and that person was actually being unfaithful and betrayed my trust.

So I had evidence that when the communication drops, that means this. Right. So that's the trauma. 'cause I never really dealt with it. I just pushed it down and distracted myself. So it came up and I was like, oh my God. Like it's that trigger. So it was stuck in my nervous system and I felt everything I felt eight years ago.

That was when I went, right, I know how to deal with this now I'm not, I'm not the same person I was eight years ago. So I stopped all my work and I mean, I'm a workaholic. I will sit at the computer from morning till night and forget time. Time doesn't exist when I'm like involved in something I love. So you're laughing 'cause you're save completely hyperfocused.

So I stopped everything. First thing I did, I did a journey. I did a two hour journey and I carried it on. I did an extended journey and I bridge and I cried my heart out. And then I sat. I sat on the balcony and I went to the beach. I sat. I sat. I let the thoughts come. I let the thoughts come, come and go.

Come and go. Come and go. Thank you. But I don't need you anymore. Thank you. But I don't need you anymore. And I did this for four days straight, every day, breath work, another two hour session, sit on the beach, another two hour session. Sitting day four, I lost my voice. Not 'cause of the breath work. Now, it depends if you believe in this.

So I do see an energy healer. Half of me doesn't believe it at all, but I believe she believes it and, and I feel great afterwards. So something is happening, I just can't prove it. So I don't really believe it. Right? So I said to her, you know, this is what happened. And it brought it up, but it only took me four days to really shift it.

Okay. I lost my voice, but the feelings were gone. That horrible feeling. And I was able to kind of basically say, go away to that person. Like, I don't need this, this game, bla, I just don't need it. And she went, why did you think you lost your voice? So, I dunno, I did too much breath work. She was like, come on, you know better than that.

I was like, okay, what is it? She was like, well, what is it? What do you feel like you didn't resolve in that relationship? What did, what did you need to be complete? And I thought about it and I was like, I never got to tell her how she made me feel. I never spoke up in the moment 'cause I was too scared I would lose her.

'cause I genuinely thought I couldn't do better at the time. There were so many things that involved me. Not saying it, not speaking into power, not having my power back. That's why I lost my voice.

Norbert Orlewicz: Yeah.

Brendon Hansford: I love this stuff. But yeah, so that's one of my, that's like another cool story, how breath work

Norbert Orlewicz: I, I am sure you've got thousands of these stories. Uh,

Brendon Hansford: and they keep.

Norbert Orlewicz: I, I. I wanna, I wanna shift the topic a little bit. I am so fascinated by this work, and obviously I'm gonna be getting in my calendar here, and I, I gotta find a way to, to, to, to experience this because I, I know that there's stuff that I've, that I haven't processed and dealt with and I think I've been looking for the modality to help me get there. And this is obviously just smacking me in the face. Like, this is, this is definitely the work you have to try. Let's shift the conversation though a little bit and let's talk a little bit of branding and

Brendon Hansford: Okay.

Norbert Orlewicz: Because I, I saw, I, I ran across a, a documentary that you did for dancers,

Brendon Hansford: you did your research.

Norbert Orlewicz: and building Yeah.

And building their, building their

Brendon Hansford: Nice.

Norbert Orlewicz: And you've done something really unique. 'cause there's a lot of breathwork coaches out there, and they struggle to get clients. And you're talking about launching a breathwork business in September and you're expanding globally. Why do you think, from a branding and marketing creative perspective, why do you think what you are doing has hit and is taking off like this?

What did you do differently with your branding, with your marketing approach,

Brendon Hansford: Okay, well, one, we stayed away from anything woo woo, spiritual. Um, we stuck to science and, and we're gonna continue to do that. You know, what we do is all backed by science. We can talk about it to the ends of the earth about what it's doing in the body and what the sound healing is doing in the brain.

So that's one thing. You know, we, like I said to you earlier, we don't, you're not gonna dance, you're not gonna share your feelings. You're not gonna hold hands of anyone you've never met, you know, none of these things that the average guy and girl are embarrassed to do. You know, it's like, I don't, I don't want to go, I don't, I don't wanna talk about my feeling in front of a bunch of strangers.

I don't wanna dance around because I can't dance. I don't wanna hold someone's sweaty hand. Come on. You know, and talking man to man as well, trying to get men to do stuff like this is a bigger struggle. And we are, we are quite proud to say that in Dubai, a lot of our ratio is about 50% men, 50% women. And that's unheard of in this industry.

And the reason I think it's it's good is 'cause we're bridging that gap, right? We're bridging that gap between what is considered healing. Oh, you know, in that healing space where you've gotta be spiritual, you've gotta dress with lots of beads and long hair and have a man bun, and you know, all the stereotypes we've shifted away from that.

If you look at all our stuff online, it's very bold, it's very in your face, it's very direct. It's very straight to the point. You know, it is very, very, um, untrained. Not for breathwork, but on trend for social media, right? So we're not trying to look like another wellness company. We're trying to look like a company that is direct to the point, and this is what we do.

So I do believe we are bridging that gap between the people that would never normally come to something like this and getting them in the room. And that's what we've been trying to do. And it's education. You know, people still don't know what breath work is, let alone breath work with sound healing. IMD.

What are these headphones? You know, I thought this was meditation. No, it's not meditation. It's very far away from meditation. Meditation is the other end. So, you know, trying to get people to understand that this is not meditation. You are gonna cry, you are gonna shake, we tell you to scream. We literally say 3, 2, 1, scream, and you scream it out.

Cathartic. It's, it's not a therapy. We're combining all these therapies together. So a lot of our branding is educational based. And we show people, here's the videos. You know, people are too scared to film in classes sometimes, but we ask permission who doesn't mind being filmed? And if they don't mind, then we'll film them and then we can show people what we do.

You know, every single instructor around the world that we take on is qualified before we even talk to them. So we don't just teach 'em our methodology and we don't just teach 'em how we do things. They have to be qualified already. And we do test because a lot of the courses out there are terrible. They don't teach barely anything to do with the science, to the point where I'm actually creating a course.

It's gonna take me a long time, but I've already started to create something over here where people can learn about the breath. They don't have to be an instructor, but they can just learn about the breath and understand it properly. 'cause once you understand the science behind it and the ratios and everything that's going on in the body, you can work out your own stuff.

You don't need to follow what this person said you should do, or this. You go, wait a minute. So. I know that the heart speeds up when I breathe in and it slows down on the way out. So wait, if I breathe in faster and slow it out, my heart will should go slower. Right? So I should relax. Doesn't take a genius, you know, the basics that people just don't know.

We didn't get taught this in school. I dunno if you did. If you're lucky. Right?

Norbert Orlewicz: I never got taught how to breathe.

Brendon Hansford: So, yeah, and that's the thing is it's the most basic function in the world. You know, you can, you can starve yourself for a week and you'll survive. You cannot drink for a week and you'll survive. Try, stop breathing for more than an hour, more than 10 minutes.

You can't survive. It's literally your life. It's the one thing that keeps you going. So why don't we know more about it? So yeah, a lot of our branding is education, education, education, education. And we want to be seen as the experts in our field basically. So eventually people will come to us to learn.

And that's what I, I also wanna do on the side. But yeah, IMD is simple. It's easy. You show up, you listen, you breathe, you leave. Done.

Norbert Orlewicz: I love, I love that. That's a

Brendon Hansford: Yeah.

Norbert Orlewicz: simple, clean

Brendon Hansford: Easy.

Norbert Orlewicz: So, what's, what's the vision? I mean, you're so early in this business, you know,

Brendon Hansford: Yeah, I know.

Norbert Orlewicz: what do, what do you see here, you know, without going

Brendon Hansford: Yeah.

Norbert Orlewicz: 'cause I know creators, you know, we can go

Brendon Hansford: Yes. And I do.

Norbert Orlewicz: and, and stuff. Where do you see this, this business taking

Brendon Hansford: Uh, I don't, I honestly have no idea. I didn't know it would come this far. So, one thing I know I love, I love traveling and I love helping people. And right now that's kind of where it's going. Like I used to run the classes in Dubai, 'cause it's how I started. I've handed it over to an instructor locally, so I'm now a free bird to run around the world, launching new instructors, meeting new people, helping new people.

I just want it to expand. I just want to help as many people in the world as possible. Like genuinely. Really. Genuinely. So if I can build a career and a business out of it that actually keeps me alive. Amazing. That would be brilliant.

Norbert Orlewicz: Is it Isn't that, isn't it incredible? I mean, that's why I love this industry, um, to see interesting people. And this is one of the reasons we will launched this

Brendon Hansford: Yeah.

Norbert Orlewicz: is to meet interesting people like yourself that have a passion for helping others in different and unique ways, and who are building, you know, beautiful, successful businesses, uh, doing exactly that.

I mean, how much more fulfilling can it be? Brandon, we're gonna share all the links for your websites and your social media, um, right here. Can you just tell people how can they get in touch with you? What should they do

Brendon Hansford: Super, super simple. Everything is the same. I am the immersive, multidimensional breath work. It's the website, it's Instagram, it's the Twitter, it's the TikTok, it's the YouTube. And then if you find that, you'll find a link to me as well. Brendan Hansford. Easy peasy.

Norbert Orlewicz: Love it. Awesome. Brandon, this has been a really great conversation. I love your passion. Uh, and I'm just, I'm gonna be following you and watching the growth of

Brendon Hansford: Yeah.

Norbert Orlewicz: And, uh, just seeing what you guys are up to and definitely have to go check out a

Brendon Hansford: Yes. Yeah.

Norbert Orlewicz: I just want to thank you again. I wanna thank you for your passion and for your

Brendon Hansford: Bless you. Thank you for having me on.

Norbert Orlewicz: in this world.

This is, uh, it's a huge thing. This has been a really great conversation. Thank you so

Brendon Hansford: Thank you very much.

Norbert Orlewicz: Awesome. Alright guys. If you are a coach, consultant, trainer, or expert, and you're looking for some clarity in your marketing and branding, just a reminder, come join us for that Digital Mentors Compass workshop.

Again, it's compass workshop.com. And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your network and your audiences and anyone that. Could use and benefit from the work that Brendan is doing around the world. This has been a conversation between two coaches.