In episode 64 of Wake Up to Wealth, Brandon Brittingham interviews Louie Hamner, a successful entrepreneur and breathwork expert, as he explains how breathwork has not only changed his life but has also helped countless others find clarity, heal trauma, and unlock their true potential.
Tune in for insights on wealth management and the importance of having a strong financial foundation for your business.
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Brandon Brittingham
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Louie Hamner
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This is Wake Up to Wealth, a podcast dedicated to helping you change the way you think about wealth. And now, here's your host, Brandon Brittingham.
This next segment is brought to you by my good friends at Acruity. Now, if you run a business, most business owners neglect their back office and they don't even know where to go or who to trust when it comes to their financials or CPA or taxes. That's where Acruity comes in. You can trust them, they can give you advice, and they understand the back office. Listen, you're not running a business correctly if you don't have a hold of this, and it's really hard to trust people that are out there, and most CPAs, frankly, work for the IRS and don't work for you. That's not the case with accruity. Check my good friends out at accruity for any needs that you have when it comes to helping with your back office, getting your books straight, getting your taxes correct, and they guide you and give you advice, which most firms don't. So check out my guys at Accruity, tell them I sent you. Welcome, everybody. Welcome back. Thank you guys so much for joining us for another episode of Wake Up to Wealth. And like I always start every episode, I have to say thank you guys for the support of the show. We're 125,000-ish downloads per episode. We continually trend in the top 25, 30 in business and between number one and five in investing on Apple podcasts. So thank you guys so much. When you think about the shows that have so much bigger budgets, I mean, we're shooting this shit in a hotel in new Orleans right now, right? Like no studio. I got my boy Kate here. We got Louie here today, but, um, it's pretty wild to think that, uh, the content that we're putting out is getting that much burn. when we're competing with shows that have, you know, huge freaking budgets, huge studios behind it. And that's just because you guys, it's because you guys continue to support the show. And it gives me the ability to get cool people in the show like Louie today and give you guys content that you want to hear and listen to. So thank you guys so much. And today I'm super excited. A lot of people say, Oh, I met this person. They changed my life or this changed my life. I can actually attest to this guy actually changed my life. And I've got Louie Hamner with us today. Thank you, Louie.
Yeah, you're welcome. Yeah. Happy to be here.
I'm going to let him tell it, but Louie brought me into the world of breath work. And I thought it was some dumb ass, hippie, weird shit. And it actually is probably one of the most profound things. I do it all the time now. I actually, uh, flew Louie in here today because we have an event here in new Orleans tomorrow for a bunch of entrepreneurs, my own event, because I am such a believer in it now. So if you would like, I don't know how to describe it to people.
Yeah, yeah.
Could you describe it?
Yeah, well, it's kind of, yeah, it's kind of hard to describe. Breathwork is a way of you getting back to who you were originally. Yeah. Like, it's a simple way of, like, kind of putting it, but it's a way of you coming into the present moment with who you really are. And that's what changes, that's what changes people. And I'm not sure if I was just like putting it in a sentence, I would say that's kind of what it is.
So, um, for people that are listening to this, um, this guy's not just some weird hippie. He was as super successful, right? You built a company and exited.
Yeah. I built a company, uh, and exited 17 years later. And, um, at the age of 49, kind of semi retired, like, uh, and so, and breath work, why we're kind of talking about it because that kind of, it changed me. It, It pivoted me in my business in a way I never would have done it. And I kind of attribute it to, it was like everything I had done prior to the exit, Breathwork kind of materialized it. Does that make sense? Like it just brought it, like made everything come to, come to be.
So I think one of the things that convinced me to try this with you was in one of the conversations, I think you said, and I want everybody that's hearing this, because I know a lot of you that listen to the show, you're running, you run businesses, you're entrepreneurs, you're driving hard. And one of the things I think you said to me was, dude, when's the last time you actually just sat and breathed for an hour? Yeah. And I was like fucking never probably like, and actually just sat with your breath and relaxed. Like for, for, for people that don't, number one, I want you guys to think about that because that's a real shit. And number two, walk us through like what happens to people when they do this?
Yeah. Kind of what happens is that especially I'm talking, as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, especially business owners. So this applies to everybody, but especially business owners is that you get so caught up in your business and what you're doing. You don't take time to really process what you're feeling, what you're learning, and what you haven't let go of. You're just going to the next thing. And when you don't allow yourself to get caught up to that, all of those things start shaping how you're making normal, like everyday decisions and you're not making them. You're not making them without the stress of all the other decisions. Like you're not making them without the past. And so until you let yourself get caught up to that, then all that gets cleared out. Then you get to start over again. If I were saying that it's like, It's a reset. It's a reset. It is really a physical, emotional, spiritual reset. It's almost like you went on a two week vacation. Cause you know, you know, as a business owner, when you go on vacation, the first three days, it's not vacation.
It's hell.
I'm still checking this, I'm making this. I'm like, shit, I forgot to do that. You're catching up. And that's what happens. If you notice that for three days, you are spending three days catching up on the shit you didn't complete. And then on day four, you're like, okay, finally I can relax. This is my first day. I can relax.
Yeah. It's a great analogy. Yeah. So, um, what do you think is, so I, prior to this, I tried to meditate. It didn't work. Right. It never worked. Me too. You know, what is, what is the power? Well, number one, you are gifted at it. I don't know that. I just think you have a special gift, but what is, what is the power in it? Like what, what changes?
The power in it is that, first off, meditation, the power in this style of breathing, of breath work, is that meditation is hard to just sit and to clear your mind. So the power in this is you're actually actively doing something. You're not counting your breath or you're not trying to pause and make, you're just actively breathing. So it's something you know how to do. We know how to be active. And so you're, you're actively breathing. So it's easy to do. It's through the mouth. And then you do that for 30, 40 minutes and then you stop. And then it puts you in this deep meditative state. So, so it's kind of like in our minds. And I was just thinking through this, cause I'm, I'm very high ADD. I, when I got diagnosed, the doctor was like, you're off the chart. How'd you do this? Like, have you gone bankrupt yet? I'm like, no, he's like, anyway. So it gives you an ad, something very active to do. So, because we're addicted to the feeling of getting shit done. So it gives you this active breathing. So you're kind of like, it settles that, like, I am doing something. I might just be laying here.
And that's why meditation doesn't work for people like us. Yeah, it doesn't work.
Because you lay there like, what am I doing? One minute you're like, this is crazy. But this gives you something active to do. You can even move your hands and, you know, just to give you something to do. I used to like move my hands up and down just to like, give me something to do so I can stay there. But what happens is once you connect to your breath and you get in this pattern where you start to oxygenate your body to a level where it needs to be, your mind starts to calm down. And so the power in this breath and this style of breathing and the rebirthing is it gives you something actively to do, which settles that. And then 20 minutes into this, you start to really settle in. And then you have another 20 minutes of breathing, which is deep connection to who you are. And then you have about a 15 minute, 10, 15 minute window of where you've stopped breathing and you're in this deep meditative state. meditating like a monk, you know? And then you get all this clarity, all this stuff that you have been running and pacing yourself so fast starts catching up to you. Kind of like you finally have put on the brakes and everything that you've been wanting to really think about and focus on and to see through and all that stuff starts catching up and you're at the best. physical and physiological state in that moment to process all that information.
Yeah, so I didn't ask this question, so obviously there's different versions of breath work. I only know yours. Yeah, which is rebirthing. Tell us what it is.
Rebirthing is a conscious breathing where you're in a breathing cycle where you're either inhaling or exhaling, so there's no hesitation at the top or the bottom of the breath. And you're just staying connected without counting. You're just, you're normal breathing to about 75, maybe, you know, 60, 75% of your lung capacity through your belly. And you just, it's a constant breathing. So you're not really, it's not a holotropic, which is forcing air out and forcing it in hard. This is just your normal breathing pattern.
in and out. So, um, for those of you guys are listening to this, I've had, I've had spiritual experiences. Um, I've saw my future. I've saw my past. Uh, it healed trauma that I was dealing with. Um, I had physical releases in my body. Right. You know, it's, it's, it's wild. Yeah. Right.
I would say Peter Levin, who's renowned for trauma and overcoming it, he talks about how when we are unable to complete an emotional state, and that gets interrupted, then that's what trauma is and we hold it in our body. And he says until we can get back into a state and then like process it, that gets held up and it starts aging our body like cigarette smoking does.
Yeah.
And, and this, and he says, this practice, this rebirthing style of breathing allows you to go back to that state to like, to complete those emotional states, to let go of that trauma.
What do you think? What do you think? What's you, I know you've got to have an idea or an opinion. What do you think happens? Like, what do you think happens when, when somebody like me has, of just this profound religious experience, right? And it happened more than once. Like, what do you, what do you think? What's what? I have no explanation for it. That's why I'm asking.
Yeah. So it was like, if I was actually thinking about this today, literally today on the plane ride, I was thinking about this. Um, I think sometimes when we talk about religion or religious, we think that there are certain things that we have to do or be to have an experience, right? We have to be, I don't know, we have to be not doing certain things that religion considers bad to have a religious, to have a spiritual experience. But the truth is, like, that's not necessarily true. The truth is that we are spiritual beings and that we're just having a physical experience with the body. And when we can stop and rest our physical body and connect to our breath, and the word in Greek or breath of spirit, right? In the Bible, when it says God did breathe into Adam his spirit, the breath of life, like, so when you connect to your breath, how I see it is like you're connecting to your spirit. And when you're connecting to it at that pace, where it's just relaxed, like a slow inhale and a slow exhale, so you're not forcing it, you're not, and you just start connecting to that, you start connecting to who you are spiritually. And it kind of looks like, to me, it's like, we're these two things, and as we start to connect to our breath, we realize, like, we're not this thing on the ground, we're this thing. And then we have this spiritual experience, and it's mind-blowing because we think we have to have done something. Well, honestly, I'm religious. I go to church every week. And as I was doing my first breathwork practice, and I had this very, very spiritual experience, I remember thinking, how is this happening? I'm not praying. I'm not in church. I'm not fasting. I'm not doing anything. I'm laying down in a yoga studio, breathing. And this is like the second most spiritual experience of my life. And I just was crying because I was just like, what is happening? And it kind of blew my mind too, because I thought I'm not doing anything that I would consider that would create that type of a, I'm not reading the Bible. I'm not doing any of these things. It's us connecting to the divinity. That's how I see it. It's like our own divine nature. We become aware of it. And when we become aware of our own divine nature, then, you know, from my perspective, then we're connected to God. We're connected to the thing that created us.
What have you seen this do for people? You know, I mean, let's talk about, I saw you do this for 500 people in Salt Lake. Yeah. Right. Um, that was wild as shit. Cause you know, I felt like. I don't, I don't say I felt like I saw it. I mean, I felt it, but I also saw about 500 people have a religious experience. Yeah. Right. And so what, but what have you seen people, what have you seen people who have stuck with it and continue to do it? What have you seen to do for them in their life?
I want to start just talking about things physically first. So we know, we both know Blake, kid that had his right ankle had hurt for three years, hadn't been able to run. He did breathwork one time and he came up to me, he's like, hey, after I did that breathwork with you, I can run. And I haven't been able to run for three years without my ankle aching. He's like, and I've kind of kept tabs with him and said, how's your ankle? He's like, it's been great ever since breathwork. So I've had several people who've had some type of physical ailment. I had a lady who her left shoulder had hurt since her son had been born 18 years ago. She was like, for 18 years, I've never been able to sleep on my left side. Breathwork one time and she was like, I've been sleeping on my left side. It's crazy. So what happens is, why that happens is because we're holding tension in our body And when that tension continually is held, then it starts to cause other problems in our body, right? Like if you're walking crooked, and then your backs are hurting, and then your backs are hurting, and then you're doing this, and then, you know. And so when you do this, it actually, it softens the soft tissue of your body. And then there's physical ailments that kind of your body will let go of because it no longer is tight or rigid. That makes sense. It does. So one, I've had several, I say hundreds of people over the last seven years, I've had hundreds of people. I say hundreds, probably a hundred to 200 people say, basically this no longer has happened to me. So one, two, they, they get a perspective shift of their own identity. And that little perspective shift like changes them.
I can 100% attest to that happened to me.
Yeah. I mean, we, we, we, we see this like in schools where a kid will say a teacher believed in me and then it just changed me. And then I started getting straight A's or whatever it was, you know, or, and we see people change, but when the perspective shift is internal, when it's just you, yeah. it has more impact in your life because it's you. And there's a thought pattern that no longer exists anymore because that perspective shift happened internally. And it's confirmed spiritually because you, it's like a near-death experience. You have this deep spiritual connection and that shifts, identity shifts, and you can't believe certain things that you used to believe about yourself. I've seen that. I've seen it change. I've had women who've said, our marriage was hard. It softened my husband. And that's all we needed to get to, not that that changed their whole marriage, but it was enough to give them a break in their marriage where then the things that needed to happen happened.
Yeah.
That makes sense.
It does. Yeah. So it makes a ton of sense.
When I went to that event, when there was 500 agents, I bet you, I had 20 people come up to me on the first day and said, Hey, last year when you did this year before, changed my life, changed my relationship with my mom, changed my relationship with my brother. It's wild. It's wild because we don't give ourselves enough time. We're always looking at our phone.
You're always doing something. We're always doing something. in your mind, you never, you know, again, I think that's one of the things that stuck with me is you never rarely, how often do you sit in your thoughts and do you sit in peace? Right. And then to your point as entrepreneurs, and when we run hard, we are, we, we become addicted to chaos. Right. And then you become addicted to chaos. You can't see through it. And, uh, Man, and besides the trauma stuff, every time I do breath work, it draws a straight line to where I need to be in business, too. It gives me so much clarity, it's wild.
Yeah, I'll tell you one thing that it did for me. I went, and when I first did it, I went to Snowden Woods, and Zach, the guy who mentored me, I was there for five days, no, four days. We did that practice five times in four days.
Yeah.
When I came back, I remember my kids, you know, I guess they were 19, they were like 18 and 16 and 13. But I remember them saying, mom, dad's different. What has happened? It's just like more chill. What did you do? And it was just, I just, you realize that you're running too hot and running that hot doesn't create space in your life. Running that hot is scarcity. And that's the thing that it did for me. I stopped running so hot, got out of scarcity.
You got a survival mode.
Yeah, I got out of that survival mode and just started allowing things to come into my life. Yeah, I don't know, I just remember sitting at my desk at times and I would think, man, everything's going right, like I should be doing something. And the best thing I could be doing was sitting there and then allowing something to come to me and say, oh man, they would come up, somebody would come into my office and say, I'm so glad you're here, I needed to talk. And sometimes the escrow officer would say, I just got an offer from another company, I'm so glad you're here because I want to talk to you about it. Now, if I wasn't there, and running hot and trying to find shit to do. And I'm not there in that moment. Like that was a critical moment.
100%.
That makes sense? It does. It makes a ton of sense. Secondly, I was going to say- And so the breathwork gave you that awareness.
Gave me that awareness. And what happened too is that the people that worked for me started doing it. And it started giving them awareness. And they realized it started changing them. And then, for example, I got that one person, they said, I got an offer and they said, but my life has been changing here. I know literally $35,000 more a year, but it's just not worth, like, but you're changing my life. I brought my kid to breath work. You know, it was just, it grounded us to, you realize like what's important and what's meaningful.
It was great. So for anybody- And I wouldn't have predicted that.
I wouldn't have. If someone would have told me that a year ago, even when Spring said to go do it, I'm like, this is crazy. This is like hippie stuff.
What are you talking about? I had the same reaction. I mean, when you guys were all telling me about it, I was like, this sounds fucking dumb. You know?
I love it because it's dumb. It is so dumb.
But it, but it's not, it's, it's literally, if you're, if you're listening to this and you're an entrepreneur, this is literally the missing link. This, this will take you to a level you didn't even think was possible and it will unlock a door you didn't know even existed.
Yeah. Yeah. Can I say one more thing about that? Of course. It's so funny is that we did breathwork at some event and this entrepreneur that was there, He said afterwards, we were talking like, what did you experience? And he said, I came out, I just saw something in my business. It's going to radically change my whole business. Wow. He's like, literally this is going to change everything in my business. So I came up to him afterwards and I said, the outcome you got at Breathwork, do you think you could have paid a coach to get you the outcome? He goes, no. They wouldn't have found it. He goes, I wouldn't have found it. I wouldn't have believed it. He goes, I wouldn't have done this. I said, how much is it worth to you? He goes, it's going to give me $250,000 in revenue more a year, just a simple change of that. And then I said, would you pay me $10,000 for it? I helped you get it. He goes, That's crazy, because that was like one hour. And I'm like, I know, you don't believe in one hour. You can come up with, it's like, you could change it. You don't believe it, but it speaks to the untapped potential that we have in ourselves. It speaks to that. And that's why I always say, like, I'm not the magic. The magic is in the person.
Now, I think you do have, the magic's in the person, but I do think you, and everybody says it, that's done it with you. I think you do have some magic.
I know, I'm just saying, but the thing that they're most impressed by is who they really are.
Because I've heard other people have done breathwork and I'm not taking it away from anybody, but they're like, nah, I didn't, you know what I mean? And then I've had people said that they've done breathwork before and then do it with you. And they're like, that shit wasn't even the same experience. This was completely different.
No, I agree. So there is some magic, but I guess, They're just so much untapped within.
You help people find it.
I'm just helping you find it.
Yeah. So if someone's listening to this and they want to learn more about Breathwork, or they want to follow you, or they want to connect with you, what do they do?
Just connect with me on Instagram. Right. How? Louie Hamner. Yeah. Louie Hamner. Connect with me on Instagram. DM me and we'll set you up. All right, cool.
I ask everybody the same question when we rap. The show is called Waking Up to Wealth, and the answer is different for everybody, but to you, what does waking up to wealth mean?
Realizing that you have everything you've always needed.
Easy enough. Dude, I thank you so much. This guy has been a great influence on my life. He introduced me to Breathwork, which has radically changed everything. Just a special person, and I'm glad I get to be boys with him. And he's gonna be here at my event tomorrow, so I gotta introduce a bunch of people that I coach to his stuff. So it's really, really cool. I appreciate you being on the show and talking about Breathwork today.
Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of Wake Up to Wealth. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts. This way we'll get updates as new episodes become available. And if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review on Apple Podcast and tell your friends about the show. It is how new people find us. Until next time.