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Kreatures Of Habit Podcast
Francesca Sipma on HypnoBreathwork, Mindfulness, and Subconscious Healing
00:51:54
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- [00:00]
Francesca Sipma
Pre Breathwork, Francesca lived in New York City and woke up at 5am and popped an unprescribed Adderall and then went to boxing class and then sprinted over to a hot yoga class, showered at the gym, went to work, absolutely crushed a 12 hour workday, came out of it, downed a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, took his Yanax and went to bed. I was very intense, extremely career driven and completely out of touch with myself and my emotions.
- [00:24]
Michael Chernow
I'm Michael Chernow and this is the Creatures of Habit podcast. Our habits will make us or break us. It's just that simple. I've lived on both sides of the tracks and have learned that the decisions we make on a consistent basis truly define who we are as human beings. On this show, I will be interviewing some of the most inspiring, motivating and high performing humans I've encountered to share their daily habits, routines and rituals that help them stay on top of their game and ultimately happy. So sit back, relax and pay attention because what you hear over the next 30 to 45 minutes could potentially change your life.
- [01:06]
Let's go.
- [01:08]
What up y'all? Welcome back to the Creatures Habit podcast. I am comfy and cozy right now. It is just after Thanksgiving. I'm not sure exactly when this podcast is going to drop, but we are in the heart of the holiday season in New York City where it's actually not super cozy outside the windows here, but in this studio where I am right now with Francesca Sipma is very, very coz we just had a real kind of like podcast before the podcast. Francesca is a breathwork specialist. She started her career in marketing and advertising of all things and had made a transition, took like a global tour to do some deep diving and discovered that, you know, this, this, this healing process is something that she really wanted to focus in on as a career. And when I see or learn about someone who is doing breath work at a level like Francesca is or at a capacity like that, I get very, very interested. Francesca, she created something called Flow State Breathwork and Hypno Breathwork and she's the CEO of Mastery and she travels around the world sharing her, her knowledge about this, these two forms of breath work. As you guys know, if you've listened to this podcast, which I'm sure a lot of you have, breathwork is something that I cherish. Breath work has been groundbreaking for me. Breath work is arguably, as far as I'm concerned, the most powerful form of therapy one can do if they are open and willing to allow the breath to do its thing. I don't believe that you need psychedelics to have breakthroughs. I believe that it's all inside of us, and the breath activates that. And so that's why I'm so excited to talk to Francesca about her, about her styles of breathwork. So welcome to the show.
- [03:17]
Francesca Sipma
I'm very excited to be here. Thank you.
- [03:19]
Michael Chernow
Before we started rolling, we were talking about the breath. And what I really like to just kick off with is I want to understand hypno breathwork. I want you to explain to the audience what that is.
- [03:32]
Francesca Sipma
Breathwork on its own is a very powerful modality. It's really more of an experiential therapy where you can heal suppressed emotions. And people come out of breathwork sessions feeling very cathartic, and they've released a lot of emotion. The hypnosis component is where we're actually starting to reprogram and rewire the brain through hypnotic suggestion. It's basically finding topics, intentions, and themes that make it very much more specific. So they follow the vocal guidance, we release the block, we release the limiting belief, we start to reprogram it, we see something more expansive. And then the last cue in every hypno breathwork session is what's your next intuitive action step towards that version of you or towards that goal? So now we're creating the action component, which helps with the integration so that people know what to do after the journey. And then also in hypno breathwork, visualization is huge. So once you're unblocked, once the emotions.
- [04:30]
Michael Chernow
Walk us through, like, what it. Like, can you just walk us through, like, what a full session looks like?
- [04:33]
Francesca Sipma
Yeah. So let's say it's a 60 minute private session. First 15 minutes, we're just kind of talking and deep diving into what it is that you want to work through that day. What's the most, you know, prominent trigger that's going on in your life? What's the pattern that you keep coming up against from there? We start to customize it. I'll customize it in my mind, the playlist and the vocal cues that I need to run you through. Song one, just dropping into your breath, just getting into the cadence. You're starting to feel some physical sensations, the tingling.
- [05:00]
Michael Chernow
What is the breath? What is the actual breath?
- [05:03]
Francesca Sipma
It's two inhale, one exhale. So it's inhale into your belly, inhale into your chest, exhale, inhales through your nose, inhales through the nose, exhale through the mouth. And it goes on for about 22 minutes. So song one's the drop in song. Song two's the buildup and we start to identify the block. Song three, we start to reprogram it. Song four is the visualization song. Who do you want to become? What's your 2025 roadmap? What does that family look like? What is the home and the success and the career? What emotion does that feel like in your body? And then we take you through the action step and then you have a meditation for integration. So it's hyper efficient, it's very effective and it's results driven.
- [05:38]
Michael Chernow
How important as a, as someone who holds space. And I guess what, what I mean by that is for, for those that are listening, that don't know what that means, basically when there's a, when there's a breathwork practitioner sort of guiding somebody that is kind of in that world called holding space.
- [05:56]
Francesca Sipma
Yeah.
- [05:57]
Michael Chernow
If you had to describe what holding space means, what would you say that is?
- [06:03]
Francesca Sipma
It means creating a safe environment or atmosphere with no judgment, complete acceptance, pure good energy so that that person feels supported, so that they can go deep into their emotions and release any memories or anything that's been suppressed that needs to come up and out.
- [06:18]
Michael Chernow
One thing that I've noticed through my experience with breathwork and you know, I, I tend to coach a bunch of guys in the beginning of the year, so I do it once a year for three months. I grab 10 guys that want to, to walk through a coaching experience with me and, and, and one of those sort of sessions, I always kind of introduce them to breath work and bring on a practitioner to, to walk them through it. I do it with them as well. What I've noticed is if you, you could be doing the exact same breath work, the exact same, in the exact same room or on the, in the exact same journey together, some people will have an experience and other people won't. And do you think that has to do with how open you are going into it? Do you think that there's blocks that people like build sort of these, these blocks that, that potentially don't allow them to go deep into the world of breath?
- [07:12]
Francesca Sipma
It's a good question. You know, to be honest, like the majority of my sessions I haven't experienced a lot of that, but just recently I did have two people say, oh, I didn't really go very deep. And I think that in the very beginning, people can get really distracted by the physical sensations. You know, your body's tingling and you're feeling really activated, you're feeling a loss of control. And I think that if you get really into your head about that, then it blocks the emotional insights and the visions and the deeper healing.
- [07:39]
Michael Chernow
Cause it's scary.
- [07:40]
Francesca Sipma
Yeah, it's intense. I think intense is the best word to describe a breathwork journey. And I always say, give it three sessions, give it three shots. Because the first one, you're in your head, you're distracted by the physical sensations. The second one, you know what's coming, so you're able to drop in a little bit deeper. And then by the third one, it's almost like you don't really have a choice. Like, the breath is already activated now, and it's going to take you into what needs to be healed and the root of some of those emotions.
- [08:07]
Michael Chernow
My experience, my first real breathwork experience, like this sort of holotropic rebirthing, breath work, full transparency, was terrifying for me. It ended up being unbelievable.
- [08:24]
Francesca Sipma
Yeah.
- [08:24]
Michael Chernow
But I wasn't warned about the potential physical component of it. So I want to ask you about that because I think that's really important for people to understand, because for somebody who isn't given, like, the full rundown on what could potentially happen in a breath work session, and then it does for me. My body is, for whatever reason, super sensitive to the breath physically. And I. Within five minutes, like, I am. My heart is racing. My. My hands are. Are closing together. I feel. My mouth gets seized up. My chest begins to feel like it's heavy. And when that started happening, my forearms, like, feel, like, just energized and kind of pulsating.
- [09:15]
Francesca Sipma
Yeah.
- [09:16]
Michael Chernow
And I thought I was having a heart attack. I really did. I was. I was terrified. And I, like, bounced up and Michael, who I do this work with, like, saw me because it was in a live setting. He ran over to me. He started rubbing my chest, and he was like, just relax, man. This is just breath. This is just oxygen. It's in your body. You're overloading your body with oxygen probably for the first time ever in your life, and your body is responding to it. Just know that it's energy that needs to be released.
- [09:44]
Francesca Sipma
Yeah.
- [09:45]
Michael Chernow
So what is that physical thing? Like what? Like. Like biologically or chemically? Like what is happening inside the body? Do you know?
- [09:53]
Francesca Sipma
Yeah. Well, first it's a little bit on, you know, the practitioner to make sure that all of those warnings are kind of put in place. You'll never come to a live sess with me where I'm not like, hey, this is going to be extremely intense. Not sugarcoating this. If you thought you were in meditation, you're in absolutely the wrong class. Like, this is going to rock you a bit. So there's that kind of preface. But if you are someone who's been holding emotion, if you're someone who's been numbing out, if you carry stress and you don't have those outlets, all of that energy is stored in your body and it's just holding on and it's creating blockages. It's not allowing you to be your clearest, your most intuitive, your most creative self. It's just repressed emotion that is stored in your cells, in your nervous system, in your subconscious. And so for a lot of people, the first breathwork session is the most physically intense because it's the first outlet for that stress and that anxious energy and that tension that's been accumulated. But you'll notice that as you start to do it more consistently, the second one doesn't feel necessarily as physical. It starts to get a bit more emotional. And then based on what's kind of going on in your life or what milestones are coming up, that's how you can kind of gauge when it's going to be super physical. For me, breathwork isn't physical anymore. It hasn't been for four years. I haven't felt any tingling or any of those things, but I do it every single day so that I'm clearing as things come up and they aren't getting.
- [11:12]
Michael Chernow
So you do it every day?
- [11:14]
Francesca Sipma
Every single morning, 20 minutes.
- [11:16]
Michael Chernow
This, this, this style of breathwork. Wow.
- [11:19]
Francesca Sipma
Yep.
- [11:20]
Michael Chernow
I have not had that experience. I've been, I've been doing it. I probably do it realistically now less than I was. I mean, I was doing it once every two weeks for a while and then it's kind of gone to once a month. And now I've kind of gone probably a few months without it. I always have a very physical and powerful, powerfully emotional experience. Like you're.
- [11:41]
Francesca Sipma
You're taking inhales through your mouth, though. Yeah, that's more oxygen. It makes it even more intense and more physical. That's why. That's part of the reason we do it through the nose. So it's a. It's slightly more mild and a bit more manageable. But then we increase the frequency and the duration of which you're doing it. So the spasms and, you know, the clenching and the tightness around your face, that's less. So it's mostly just in the beginning and then with more practice, it's mainly just self awareness, like revelations and pattern recognition that's going on in your mind.
- [12:16]
Michael Chernow
So that is a great segue into just learning about what your morning routine is like. Because you just said you do 20 minutes of breathwork every morning.
- [12:23]
Francesca Sipma
Every single morning breathwork first and then meditation. And that's the most important part of my day. It's 40 minutes when I am priming my state, I'm visualizing and I use breathwork. Now before, you know, it was a lot of healing that I needed to do, but now it's more flow state sessions. So it's very much pointed to my business. Who do I need to reach out to today? How do I scale? What's the partnership strategy? What's the pitch deck, what's the email, the presentation? And so it's much more to organize streams of consciousness.
- [12:53]
Michael Chernow
And have you found like, talk to me about Francesca pre breathwork and now post. Like, if you could say these are the most significant shifts in my trajectory, in my perspective, like, what are they pre breathwork?
- [13:09]
Francesca Sipma
Francesca lived in New York City and woke up at 5am and popped an unprescribed Adderall and then went to boxing class and then sprinted over to a hot yoga class, showered at the gym, went to work, absolutely crushed a 12 hour workday, came out of it, downed a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, took his Xanax and went to bed. I was very intense, extremely career driven and completely out of touch with myself and my emotions. And now still very driven and ambitious, but much more in alignment I think now. There's just been so much growth. There's been so much growth that has happened and the reasons behind the achievement. And we have very similar stories there, I think, with our fathers. And I'm just doing things with flow and ease and not necessarily for status and significance and ego and titles and all the things that you chase in New York City, but for service, for impact, for creativity. And it's joyous and it feels much more internally free.
- [14:03]
Michael Chernow
What does a perfect day look like for you now or a close to perfect day?
- [14:07]
Francesca Sipma
A perfect day for me is no meetings and no calls.
- [14:10]
Michael Chernow
I'm with you.
- [14:12]
Francesca Sipma
There's nothing more triggering to me than a call that could have just been an email. So the perfect day for me is, you know, I wake up, I do, you know, brush my teeth, do breathwork, do meditation, take all of my action steps that come up immediately, send the emails, get the post out, do my content planning, marketing strategies, whatever that looks like, and just create. Create a new workshop, a new experience, a new program, a new course. You Know if I have speaking gigs or events coming up, like curating those experiences, that is super fun for me to do. And then getting a workout in and then maybe spending some time with my partner and, or getting a massage and just having a nice, a little bit more balanced day.
- [14:53]
Michael Chernow
I know that you work with a lot of C suite executives in business on a coaching basis, but also you kind of go in and coach teams.
- [15:03]
Francesca Sipma
Yeah.
- [15:03]
Michael Chernow
What, like people in business that are super driven, nose to the grindstone, hardcore, like every second counts. How do you deliver this kind of modality in a way that is going to make them want to make the time for it?
- [15:22]
Francesca Sipma
So when I go into corporate settings, I go in with the angle of peak performance and flow state and mental clarity, so I'm speaking that language. And then I turn all the breathwork sessions into specific cues on their industry. So we'll start, say, I'm coming into your business. I'll say, okay. I want you to visualize creatures of habit. I want you to see the mission statement. I want you to see the product line. I want you to visualize how you want your audience and your consumers to feel. I want the team to start to see their role and their collaboration. And I want you to see yourself working in a way that's focused and aligned and productive. And those would be my breathwork cues. And the music would be upbeat. It'd be Rufus to soul. It would be trance, more edm, like euphoric kind of music. So it's very different from the breathwork sessions that you've experienced. That's flow state breathwork. So I lead with that. And now everyone's rejuvenated and they're inspired and they're excited and they've just released a lot of burnout and stress. And then maybe in like a session three, I'm like, cool. See yourself as a little boy.
- [16:18]
Michael Chernow
So, you know, you feed them, you feed them the stuff that you know that they're going to be like, I need more of that.
- [16:23]
Francesca Sipma
Yeah. And then we go a little deeper.
- [16:25]
Michael Chernow
All right, let's, let's, let's peel it back. Yeah, that's so interesting. So your morning looks like you wake up. Do you have a specific time you wake up anymore or is it just like, I wake up when I wake.
- [16:36]
Francesca Sipma
Up, I'm like a 6, 6:30 ish, wake up now.
- [16:39]
Michael Chernow
So you wake up at 6, 6:30. You take care of your hygiene. You lie on your back and do.
- [16:45]
Francesca Sipma
Breath work blindfold on 22 minutes on mastery app. Because I literally created that. So it had every session that I could.
- [16:52]
Michael Chernow
So there's. So the app is called Mastery that and anybody can download it and get guided through a breathwork session from you.
- [16:59]
Francesca Sipma
I have 120 coaches now certified in hypno breath work around the world And I think 20 of them are on mastery. So it's a blend of all of our different focuses or specialties. And then there's 20 minute hypno breathwork sessions, guided audio, as well as 8 minute and 3 minute intro sessions for people to try it. But I learned on my journey that after a lot of the healing sessions had been done. And this is layered, right? I'm not saying I'm healed by any means. Shit comes up for me all the time. But for the most part, I want to do a session on flow. I want to do a session on decision making. I want to do a session on my intuition. I want to do a session on manifestation. And so we have 80 different topics on the app for you to be able to choose what you're going through and what you need on that day. And we have different categories from love to health to parenting. Sometimes you need to be more present with your kids. You need to be more conscious or patient. And so there are sessions for that as well.
- [17:51]
Michael Chernow
Gosh. Okay, I've been using the wrong app. I really need to get into this.
- [17:55]
Francesca Sipma
Yeah, you love it.
- [17:56]
Michael Chernow
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- [19:21]
I'm always looking for ways to, you know, I'm like, I kind of guinea pig in many, many different genres of my life.
- [19:31]
Francesca Sipma
Yeah.
- [19:32]
Michael Chernow
But I believe that the morning hours are so critical. Tagline of creatures of habit, own your morning, own your day, on your day, on your life. I believe that to be true. Right. Like, if you. The way I kind of think about it is. And for whatever reason, I kind of always go back to this visualization. You're at the track, you're at the horse track, and, you know, you see the anticipation of those high octane horses at the gate and like, everybody's waiting for that race for that to go off, and then all of a sudden, boom, that gun goes off and one of the horses just trips out the gate. The chance of that horse catching up to the rest of the horses is like, slim to none. Right? Very, very slight chance. Similarly, when we wake up in the morning, we're like the horse at the gate. And if we don't snap into it immediately, that doesn't mean that you have to go like immediately grab your phone. But taking some steps in the morning to set yourself up for success throughout the day, the chances of you actually having a successful win that day are slim to none, based on how you start.
- [20:40]
Francesca Sipma
I want to say something about that because I completely agree. And I think one of the reasons I feel really powerfully about it is because I'm not a naturally positive person. Like, I'm just not wired for optimism. You know, My mom is a Vietnamese immigrant, and with that comes a nervous system that is sort of wired to perceive threat and to survive. And I had a tumultuous relationship with my father because he lived in the Netherlands. So I would go every summer and see him and it would be amazing. We were the same person. We had so many similar mannerisms. We had the best connection. And then I go back to the States and it was out of sight, out of mind. I wouldn't hear from him at all. So my psyche, my subconscious and my nervous system started to recognize when things go really well, the shoe is going to drop and always be prepared for that. So for me, the breath work every morning is a way for Me to reprogram my mind of finding the negative of being overly prepared for something bad to happen and expanding my brain, expanding and activating different regions of my brain so I can see a different future. I can see my business flowing, I can see opportunities coming to me. I can get out of the scarcity mindset and see that abundance is always flowing. I need it to reprogram the conditioning that's been hardwired in my body and especially as an entrepreneur to not anticipate the worst thing coming all of the time because that affects your energy, it affects how you show up in a room, it affects how you have conversations with investors. I think my morning routine is so important to me because I'm not wired to be the most positive person and it actually allows me to reprogram until it becomes habitual and that's more of my default state.
- [22:21]
Michael Chernow
So interesting because I am totally wired to be optimist. I'm like, I am like the most. I might, you might be staring at the most optimistic guy. I love that it's hunting season which is really interesting because I really do consider myself like just a hunter at heart. Just in general life, you know, now I'm not talking about physically hunting, I'm just talking about in life in general. Like I've always. I am in for the hunt, I'm in for the journey. I'm way more excited about like the hunt than I am about the kill. And that said, when I moved to upstate New York and I've got all this land, I love venison and there's a lot of it walking around my property. So I have started about four years ago. I really taught myself how to hunt. And it's one of the most sacred times of the year for me because I wake up at 4:30 in the morning and I do my quick non negotiables, my morning stuff, my prayers, my, my light meditation, my push ups, things like that. And then I suit up and I walk out deep into the darkness in the woods and I've got a little, I've got a few little spots, but I sit down and I close my eyes and I meditate in the woods by myself in the dark and it's cold and I hear all the beautiful noises of the coyotes and the owls and the birds and the crackling of the squirrels. And I'm in nature and I'm in heaven truly. And I've been starting to. I've got a really great friend who is, is also a coach. She's wonderful. She really helped me immensely when I was pivoting from restaurants to creatures of habit. And business is hard. You know, it doesn't matter what business you're in. Like, business is just hard. People look at entrepreneurs and business and they see the successful ones. Yeah, it's, that's like a very small percentage of the world of small business right now. Knock on wood. You know, I've done well, you've done well, but it's, that doesn't take away from how hard it is on a very, very regular daily basis. And so what I've been kind of saying to myself and now have been kind of, and I'm, and I would, I would like to pose this question to you. But like, you get to different levels in business and you still feel like you don't know what you're doing, you're kind of winging it. You've gotta, you've gotta work, you know, you've gotta like, ask for help, use your resources, figure out how to get from this place to that place. And in that time you could easily begin to build self doubt and imposter syndrome. And question if you are the one to be doing this and are they going to figure out that you're not. And, and so what my friend Megan said to start doing for me was, she was like, okay, well let's, let, let's look at your negative self talk. Like, let's just, just say it out loud to me. Like, what does it sound like? And I started to say it and she was like, great, those are great things to talk to. Those are great topics to talk about because each one of those things has a polar opposite. So let's identify those polar opposites. And then in your morning meditation, instead of just counting your breath or doing a guided thing, just repeat those things over and the polar opposite of your negative self talk, repeat them over and over again. And the mantra that I've come up with that I've been saying over and over again is I'm unshakable, I'm irreplaceable, I'm wise like an owl, I've got a heart of a lion, I'm already there, no one can stop me. And I just say those six things over and over and over again. And the power that I felt from just repeating those things just in the last three weeks has been immense. What does meditation, when you're in your meditations, what, like, what does it look like?
- [26:18]
Francesca Sipma
My meditations are a lot more empty, I think, because my breathworks are so productive, if that makes sense.
- [26:25]
Michael Chernow
So like, you go straight from breath right into meditation. So you've just done an enormous amount of work in your breath, and now you're just allowing your body to metabolize it, Basically.
- [26:34]
Francesca Sipma
I just want to be clear, because when I'm my clearest self and I'm the most intuitive version of myself, I'm sharper in the decisions that I make in my business. I'm more confident. But my process for that, because my coaching career was very successful, and I think that all of my knowledge in marketing and advertising and branding and the relationships that I built really helped me with that. But when I launched Mastery and I raised a million dollars with investors, my inner child was triggered. All the wounds came up. This is like 30 new versions of my father I'm trying to prove my worth to. And those quarterly updates were giving me panic attacks, literally. And I was just trying to do millions of things that weren't strategic and that didn't move the needle in my business. But I had to fill the pages so that they could see how hard I was working. And it was horrible. Truly, truly horrible. And I created all of this myself because most of them were friends and family. They believed in me, but I was just making it extra difficult.
- [27:30]
Michael Chernow
But I so identify with that.
- [27:32]
Francesca Sipma
Yeah, everyone identifies with the pain of investor updates, honestly. But I had one specific investor that really triggered me. It was actually really hurtful, because in my line of work, I want to make an impact. I want to help people. I've come a long way from where I was to the person I am now, and I know how possible it is for everyone. And my truest belief is that everyone can create their dream life and a life that they love. I truly believe that, and I want to give them the most accessible tool in order to do that. But I also know that my journey to making Mastery very successful really flipped itself on its head, and I had to do a really big pivot in the middle of it. When I launched the product, everything was like, you have to build a personal brand first. And this book was a huge part of that. But saying that to my investors when all they care about is the data and the revenue, there was a big disconnect there. So what I ended up doing is I created a hypno breathwork session that I truly needed at that period of my life. And it's called Belief, and it's connecting back to your vision. I have full body chills as I'm telling you about it. You have to do this session, but you connect back to your Vision and the cues and the affirmations in it are, I can do hard things. Like, I'm made for this. Like seeing the most confident version of yourself, seeing that highest vision. And what it does is it actually solidifies your foundation and it solidifies your self worth. Because if my biggest wound is impressing these investors, but I can stand truth in my knowing, my vision, and my intuition that this is the path that needs to happen in order for this company to be successful, like, shit. How grounded is that? Like, how strong, how confident, how bold is that? If I can work through my own trigger points with them and stay the path that I know intuitively is the right one, you know, so different. I love your affirmations. I'm going to throw those into a breath work or a meditation. I'm going to do them because I think that they're so positive and affirming. But for me, I have to do a lot of breath and the hypnosis to really believe it on a subconscious and experiential level.
- [29:39]
Michael Chernow
The juxtaposition of an investor putting money into your business and then the pressure that you get from them once they've put the money in. So they're doing something positive for you, right? They're giving you money to go build something that they believe you can build, right? And I'm talking more angel here, right?
- [29:59]
Francesca Sipma
Yeah, yeah.
- [30:00]
Michael Chernow
They give you whatever, 25 to $150,000, and they say, okay, go build this. And a lot of them honestly are deeply wealthy, right?
- [30:10]
Francesca Sipma
Yeah.
- [30:11]
Michael Chernow
So in your mind, though, as an entrepreneur trying to build something, you want to make this super successful for them. A successful outcome for them, in your mind is they give me $25,000. I would love nothing more than in five to eight years later to write them a check for a minimum of 250 grand, right? So you build this mound of pressure on your back. Most of these investors that write you a $25,000 check, just do it because they think you're awesome, right? They're just like, you know what? I have, I have this money. Maybe I make 10 of these investments a year. Maybe one or two of them take off, ultimately potentially pays for itself. But I love believing in other people, and I want people to. To feel that from me. But you don't tell yourself that story as soon as that check is in the bank. You're like, all right, this is. I've got to make this. I've got to. I've got to. My shareholders are priority, right? They. I want them to feel successful in this, in this action of, of kindness that they're investing in me. And so it's so interesting and I just want to like sort of close the loop on this. I have a 9 year old son who is, both of my sons are obviously my heart. And my 9 year old son is going through a phase in his life right now where he's scared. Things are, things are scary for him. He doesn't like to watch anything that's going to make him scared because it sticks in his brain and he gets anxious around it. And at night for the last couple of weeks, he said to me, daddy, you know, as I'm putting him down, he says, daddy, I just wish I wasn't such a scaredy cat. And I have been for the first time really talking to him like an adult. And I'm like, son, fear is a story you tell yourself and you've created on your own. Fear is a choice. You can either allow it to completely impact and debilitate you or you can allow it to empower and motivate you. You have the choice. Fear doesn't know the difference. Fear is alive and well in everybody's life. You have the choice whether or not you want to allow it to cover you with a tarp and keep you sheltered from all of the amazing elements of life, or to unleash the beast and allow that fear wow and smile in its face. And he look, I get emotional saying it. He looked at me and he said, oh my God. He said, I'm so glad you're my dad when I had that conversation with him. And I just, fear is so powerful. You know what I mean? It's such a powerful thing and it could really stop entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs or 9 year old kids from like feeling freedom. You, fear is, is the thing that will make you or break you.
- [33:18]
Francesca Sipma
The whole time you were telling that story, I was just thinking like, wow, he's such a good dad, like, and that's, I think that's so special that at nine years old you could get that confirmation from your son. I find that to be so rare in such a beautiful, special moment that I hope that you obviously cherish deeply. So thank you for sharing that.
- [33:38]
Michael Chernow
What does your evening routine look like?
- [33:41]
Francesca Sipma
Evening routine? Man. I guess I'll be really honest. My ideal evening routine is to read a couple chapters of a book, do a gratitude practice and go to bed. Recently I've been a little bit on a brain rot kind of evening routine because this book launch has been really intense and it's been unfortunately like TikTok doom scrolling. So that has not been the optimal performance for sure.
- [34:07]
Michael Chernow
Transparent.
- [34:08]
Francesca Sipma
You know what? You know, I just kind of tell it like it is. And I'm trying, I am trying to get so much better at this. Like I just bought a walking pad and because it's, it's gotten dark so much earlier now it's like 4:45, it's dark in San Diego. So I am walking and listening to an audiobook and I just deleted TikTok off my phone because it was so distracting. But yeah, I like to read and kind of like put positive leadership books into my brain before I kind of doze off.
- [34:34]
Michael Chernow
That's usually any books that you love.
- [34:36]
Francesca Sipma
My favorite book in the world is Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. I cried through that whole book. I was just so motivated and it was, he's just so passionate and what he kind of created for us and how he just had a disdain for mediocrity. I just really relate to that. One of my other favorite books is the Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene. And then I love the Way of the Superior man by David Data.
- [35:00]
Michael Chernow
I love that book.
- [35:01]
Francesca Sipma
I think every woman should read that book because you'll never feel so understood ever. Yeah, those would be probably my top three. I like Stealing Fire, Steven Kotler about flow state.
- [35:10]
Michael Chernow
We'll connect to all these books in the show notes.
- [35:12]
Francesca Sipma
Yeah, I'm a big, big reader and I find that what happens is once you sort of infiltrate your subconscious mind with all of this knowledge, podcast articles, books, mentor conversations, competitive landscapes, then when breathe, you have a lot more information to pull from. So when you're thinking of strategies or 2025 roadmaps or acquisition or how to scale, but you have all these examples. Because I read Chip Wilson's book, I'm like, oh, maybe there's a cool pop up idea because Lululemon did that and da da da. So there's all of this information that I get to kind of connect new creative dots and I think that is where a lot of innovation can happen.
- [35:53]
Michael Chernow
Where do you draw the line between business and spirituality?
- [35:57]
Francesca Sipma
There's no line. Business is spiritual. And if you know how to infuse spirituality in your business. And when I say spirituality in this context, I mostly am referring to intuition and being able to trust that inner knowing and that inner guidance and again, making new creative solutions, that's when I think you'll actually be an anomaly and a powerhouse in business.
- [36:17]
Michael Chernow
For the person who's never done breath work, for the person who's Listening right now and is skeptical about this conversation, but curious, what is a step that they can take to walk in this direction? Because I know without a question of a doubt, you know without a question of a doubt that this kind of work lifestyle where you are open minded, willing to try new things to optimize, and have an interest in finding peak performance in whatever it is you're doing, like a real interest, like people that have a real interest in finding peak performance will literally try anything. Anything.
- [37:03]
Francesca Sipma
You know, if you want to be a peak performer, you need to heal the shit of the past. Because all of that energy that's being suppressed could be channeled into your cognition, your clarity, your creativity, your innovation, decision making, problem solving, articulation, retention, processing speed, all of those things. And instead you're numbing yourself out. You're not dealing with it. You think that you can compartmentalize. You don't want to open Pandora's box. You're burying all of the sadness, all of the anxiety. And what it does is it shows up in your decision making, it shows up in your projections, shows up in your relationships, and it will eventually show up in your health. And when your health starts to deteriorate, there is no peak performance in your business. So we need to release emotions. And breathwork is the fastest way to process that.
- [37:49]
Michael Chernow
You said that you had also done ayahuasca. How would you sort of delineate the outcomes of a journey like that?
- [37:58]
Francesca Sipma
And your breathworks, I mean, ayahuasca was brutal for me. It was beyond brutal. I don't know if there's a term.
- [38:06]
Michael Chernow
Have you only done it once?
- [38:07]
Francesca Sipma
I did it once. I didn't make it to the second night. I did it in Peru, like in the Amazon. It was incredibly intense. I think just the nausea and the hallucinations and the vomiting, just the taxiing on my body, like it really wrecked me. But of course the ego dissolution that happened was powerful. And I don't think I realized afterwards how much it had impacted me in a positive way. I think my intention going in was I want to release any subconscious fear and self doubt that I don't know about that's holding me back. So clearly that was going to be generational. And that's what I saw in my journey was I was releasing things from my mother and from my grandmother that didn't feel true to me, but was in my lineage. So I thought it was extremely powerful because truly in my business I am pretty fearless. I just go for it. I ask for the thing, I say it I show up, I'm super consistent, I'm highly disciplined, and I'm massive executor. And I don't hold back because I know that we have this one lifetime. So, like, fuck it. Why not, like, just go for it with you, girl. Yeah. But I do it from an intuitive place now, and that's where the magic comes in. Because before I was a hustler, but I did it through effort and grind and force. And it was just like, we'll send the 500 emails because that's what I need to do next. And I need to, you know, like, up the statistics of somebody responding. And now I'm like, no, it's these six people and it's this message and it's super personalized and this is the energy I'm carrying. So I've learned how to blend that, like, high performer with my spiritual self. And I think that that's special. And I think that if more people did that, which is the tool I'm hoping to bring into the world, then you're going to see a lot more results and you're going to feel a lot more mental peace and alignment along the way.
- [39:53]
Michael Chernow
So you've got a book launching right now.
- [39:55]
Francesca Sipma
Yeah, it came out last week. Oh, I don't know when this is airing, so it came out November 26th.
- [39:59]
Michael Chernow
Yes, go.
- [40:00]
Francesca Sipma
I know.
- [40:01]
Michael Chernow
What is the book?
- [40:02]
Francesca Sipma
It's called Unblock your purpose. And it's really a compilation of everything we've discussed today. It's three parts. Heal the past. And once you do that, you'll start to feel more creative, more connected, more intuitive. And then you can create your purpose. You can start to discover what that is. What are my skills, what am I passionate about? What am I curious about in the world? What problems do I want to solve? And then part three is really manifesting your future. How do you turn that outward to be of service? In my personal opinion, when you're of service, that is when you find true mental peace and your life takes on a completely new color and meaning. We've all had external achievements and abundance and accolades and accomplishments, and it's fleeting. You're usually chasing the next thing after that. Settled for maybe 48 hours. But when you give and you see the impact of your gifts and your talents and you see how being of service to others contributes to something greater than yourself, that's joy. That's something I'd never experienced before, and that's true fulfillment.
- [41:03]
Michael Chernow
So do you think that for the person listening, who knows, they're a taker what would be a piece of advice? You know you're a taker. You listening right now, Driving home from a stressful day at work after taking from everyone around you, you sucking the air right out of the room. How do you get, how do you convince that person to add value as opposed to just suck it right away?
- [41:27]
Francesca Sipma
If you're a taker, then you know that you've hit a ceiling at some point. You know that you're doing it again through that force and through that grind. And there's just an easier way. There's a way to be in flow. There's a way for the creative ideas to be downloaded through you. There's a way to be productive in work that feels in alignment and feels like that's sweet spot between discipline and surrender. So if you're a taker and you've been draining the energy, then I want to just invite you. I want to invite you in. Take. Try the audiobook if that's easier for you. Because I start the book off with my New York story. So immediately I get the corporate game, I get the hustle. I speak that language. I was a massive skeptic of breathwork so I can meet those people where they're at and then just listen to the stories and the breakthroughs and the revelations that people have had. It has science in it, it has psychological concepts in it. And every single chapter has a free hypno breathwork session that's linked on Mastery app.
- [42:23]
Michael Chernow
You sent me the book. I gotta crack that thing open. I got it about a week and a half ago. I am so intrigued. First of all, you are sharp as attack and you are so clear and like it's amazing. Like your energy is really amazing and just concise and I don't know if you've prepped for this, but I would just imagine you kind of walk through life this way. You know, you are really like a special human. You are. I can, I just like there's not very little if any pause when answer and I didn't prep you with any questions. You know, it's. It's not always that. I have a guest on the show that just has these like amazing, prolific, kind of like well thought through answers to questions that I ask that I'm interested in. You know, I'm super interested in what you do. There's no doubt about it. Like I've got to work with you. You know, I've got to figure out a way to, to work with you because I've done so much work.
- [43:19]
Francesca Sipma
Yeah.
- [43:20]
Michael Chernow
Over the years. But I still have brain fog. There are definitely still like, I definitely still lean on others. If my intuition says this is the right thing, there's still a little bit that doubts that. And then we'll ask somebody else what they think. And I like to be inclusive as a leader, it's important to me. I like people to feel empowerment by that. But I also think that it could, it's. In my case, it could be to a fault at times, and I want to figure out why. And I feel like you might be the right person to help me unlock that.
- [43:55]
Francesca Sipma
Absolutely. Can I share one more story that was intuitive 100%. So I don't, I don't prepare for. I don't know what, how you would prepare because I don't know what questions you're going to ask me. But I do breath work every morning. Right. And I think about my day and how I want to show up in that day. And there was one story that I was like for some reason Share this on the podcast so I was working with a private client recently, and he was having debilitating anxiety and he was having panic attacks. He has a commercial roofing company, very successful, but one of his guys fell through the skyline and died. So that impacted all of the projects moving forward. His energy and obviously the panic attacks were disrupting his life. We did five sessions together. The first session, I kind of had him go back through that scenario and clear out the grief and clear out guilt and the financial and legal implications that came after that. So I thought that's what it was going to be because that's a really traumatic life scenario. And the interesting thing happened was by session two, he still had anxiety that week. And I was like, huh, Okay, I didn't get it. I didn't get to the root. By sessions two and three, we realized that, yes, there was residual emotion from obviously that horrific experience, but the reality was his body was telling him it was time for retirement. And as soon as we got that revelation in breath, all the other emotions subsided. And then he had to take his action steps, meet with the financial planner, start to look at the other projects that he has going on. Action step was to cut off the business at one specific project and all of that started to go away. Now he thought he was having anxiety over the situation, and it turns out that he was not in alignment with his path or with his the future. That would create a lot more peace in his life. And as soon as he found that, the anxiety started to dissipate. And I think that's what's so powerful about breath work. He could have done therapy for two years and he did, did a lot of therapy and a lot of coaches, but it didn't get to the root of what was actually disconnected in his life. So I just find that to be so motivating for people who feel stuck or you feel lost. The breath will give you so much clarity, it'll give you so much insight and it'll give you direction. And when you have the courage to take the action based on that direction, everything changes and it changes fast.
- [46:13]
Michael Chernow
That's an amazing story. I feel like anxiety uses anything to guise its purpose.
- [46:19]
Francesca Sipma
Yeah, right.
- [46:20]
Michael Chernow
Like we get it clouds everything. Can you. Can people listening just download the Mastery app and just start this journey without you? They can just go.
- [46:31]
Francesca Sipma
I want to provide options for people where they're at, you know, so I'd like the book now because it gives context and it gives science. So. And then there's also hypnobirth sessions there. If you want to jump right into the sessions. Absolutely. Do it. Download Mastery, do the belief session. You can find it under my name as the instructor. That one. Super powerful. Or you can start with flow state sessions. Decision making. You'll feel really good. You'll feel really energized. Now the book is turning itself into a course in January, so we're going to go through deeper sessions on mom wounds, inner child, father wounds, shadow work, money blocks. Those are intense and those need to be with a facilitator. So that is going to be a 12 week course that's coming up. And then I also have my Bali retreat that I do once a year. That is just the most serene luxury experience ever. I've been nine times now. It'll be 10 in a couple weeks. I'm going back to write the proposal for my second book. But I know the best body workers and energy healers and we mix that with hypno breath work in nature and it's an amazing.
- [47:33]
Michael Chernow
When is that?
- [47:34]
Francesca Sipma
That's going to be July 13th through the 19th.
- [47:37]
Michael Chernow
I might have to do that. You're amazing. I am so grateful that you came to be on the show. Honestly, I'm like it, really. I'm just. I feel so happy that you're here and, you know, I know that. I knew that this was going to be a powerful one. I know the value that we've just brought to the listeners is sort of can't put a dollar sign on it. For people that are listening that are open to this kind of Thing understanding that, like, there's so much more availability. There's so much untapped potential in everyone. You just have to be open to it. And finding people like you for someone listening is value, real value. So thank you. Where can everybody find you?
- [48:26]
Francesca Sipma
You can find me on Instagram, Francesca Sitma, or my website, Francescasitma.com and mastery app is available on the Apple or the Google Play store.
- [48:33]
Michael Chernow
There you have it, y'all. What a powerful episode. I mean, just sitting in the presence of Francesca, really, you know, I did not anticipate talking about Finley and the conversations that we've been having, but I was compelled to do it because I think it's a real thing. You surround yourself with people that are inspiring, people that you look at and say, wow, like, what an interesting person. I'd love to get to know that person more. If you surround yourself with those people, I promise you, it makes shifts in your life. It will change your perspective in some cases. It'll certainly inspire you in the moment. And I'm sure you're motivated after listening to this episode, as am I. Now it's time to take action. It's. You know, chances are this episode is going to launch in the beginning of 2025, and this is an opportunity. You know, people like poo poo, New Year's resolutions. I don't, I don't think that you should be like, all right, I'm changing my whole entire life, but choose one thing to do and commit to, and maybe this one thing could be what we just talked about. Get the book, download the app, maybe sign up for the Bali retreat. You might see me there. And if you loved this podcast at episode, please share it with a friend or a family member or whoever. It would mean the world to me. That's the price you pay to listen to this, to listen to the creatures, have a podcast is just to share it. And if you're feeling super generous, you know, giving us a five star rating and writing a review really, really, really, really, really helps us grow this podcast. And that's a big, big, big priority for me in 2025, to grow the creatures that have a podcast to get in front of as many people as possible. Why? Because it's my way of doing service, and this is an opportunity for me to give back. I love doing this. I take a lot of time and energy to do it. And all I ask for in response is for you guys to share it. And, you know, if you're feeling generous, review it.
- [50:36]
And there you have it, folks. I hope we delivered some valuable content for you to implement into your life on a daily basis. Please remember that our habits have the power to make us or break us. Replacing bad habits with great ones is the answer to living a life of happiness, optimism and high performance. We are capable of achieving anything. We all have what it takes to give it all we've got. Commit to one great habit each day and truly commit and watch how everything in your life starts evolving from good to great. If you enjoyed this podcast, please follow us Wherever you listen to your podcast, give us a five star rating and a nice review that will help us grow this podcast, bring on more amazing guests and continue to deliver invaluable content on a weekly basis. Lastly, please share this podcast with any friends or family that you think might appreciate it. And always remember, Want plus do equals have until the next one Fam Peace.