We were drowning in a presentation about breathing.
How an unexpected pause helped us connect with James Nestor, author of Breath, and reminded us of something essential about brands: the people behind them.
A while ago, we had the opportunity to work with James Nestor, author of Breath, one of the most fascinating books I've ever read about something we do around 25,000 times a day without even thinking about it: breathing.
An international bestseller that sold millions of copies, exploring how something as simple as the way we breathe can influence our health, sleep, and well-being, through scientific research, experiments, and ancient practices.
If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it.
But this newsletter isn't about the book. Or maybe it is, a little. You tell me.
It all started when someone recommended us for a project in the US involving James and his team. They wanted to take the universe that began with Breath one step further: building a brand, a community, and a space where people could learn to breathe better and bring those lessons into their everyday lives.
For us, it was an incredible opportunity.
First, because I've always been a big fan of everything related to mindfulness. Second, because working with someone who had spent so many years researching and sharing something so important felt like a huge privilege. And third, because there was a challenge I absolutely loved: turning all that knowledge into a brand.
So we exchanged a few emails, had an initial meeting where we asked all kinds of questions to better understand the project, and even started imagining what the experience could feel like while we were talking to them for the very first time.
But whoaaa, hold on a second.
We still had to convince them to trust us!
We'd barely exchanged a few emails and had one meeting. And in our heads, we were already working together.
Our excitement had gotten the better of us. (Sorry about that, James 🙏).
And here's where the fun begins.
We were putting together our pitch deck: credentials, projects, references, methodology, team, timelines, numbers, you name it.
Slide after slide kept piling up. Let's add this case study, mention that project, make sure we highlight this, don't forget about that.
We wanted to show them we were the right team. That we understood their business, that we had the experience, that we could help them take on such an exciting challenge.
Until one day, during an internal review, we looked at each other and said something like:
“Wait. We're putting together a presentation for a project that's supposed to help people breathe better, and we're literally suffocating them with information.”
It was ridiculous. I still laugh about it.
We were doing the exact opposite of what we were proposing for the brand.
What if, instead of talking even more, we asked them to stop for a second?
Literally.
So that's exactly what we did. We added a slide that simply said “TAKE A BREATH”.
We invited them to close their eyes, pause, and breathe.
Just imagining the situation made us laugh. A team from Argentina, pitching to a US client who had never worked with us before, asking them to stop looking at the presentation and just breathe.
It could go amazingly well, or they could think we'd completely lost our minds.
But hey, we already had a no. What was there to lose?
So, right in the middle of that first pitch, we stopped the endless stream of slides and invited everyone to take a breath.
Just a few seconds.
No case studies, no awards, no talking about them or ourselves.
Just a pause.
And believe me, it was beautiful.
I still don't know whether that moment was what ultimately tipped the scales, but I do know that meeting marked the beginning of a relationship that allowed us to work together on the project.
In the end, it was James's own book that had helped us understand his business. And without even realizing it, it had also helped us connect with his team.
Maybe breathing is part of building a brand, too.
Then came the actual work of building the brand: the conversations, the ideas that worked and the ones that didn't, the changes in direction, the experiments, and all the decisions we made together to shape its identity.
We explored how to translate that feeling of finding your center into a visual system. How the brand could behave in motion, how its animations could breathe, what colors and what rhythm best expressed what we wanted people to feel.
A lot of work. And a lot of co-creation.
But as I'm writing these lines, I can't help thinking about how rarely we actually stop.
We're always rushing. Running from one meeting to another. Jumping between messages, notifications, deadlines, and endless to-do lists. Constantly trying to do more in less time.
And I don't know about you, but I find it hard to believe our minds are prepared to process this much information, stimulation, and distraction all at once.
And now, with all the tools available to us, we can produce, generate, automate, and accelerate practically anything.
It's amazing. And at the same time, a little exhausting, isn't it?
Sometimes I feel we're so obsessed with moving forward that we forget to ask ourselves where we're actually going.
I think something similar is happening with brands.
We can produce a hundred pieces of content in the time it used to take us to create ten. We can multiply messages, channels, and touchpoints.
But none of that guarantees someone on the other side will actually feel something.
Because at the end of the day, brands are still talking to people.
People who are tired, who have a thousand things on their minds, who are constantly running from one thing to the next.
Just like us that day, preparing our presentation.
And I think that's what I love most about this story. In the end, we didn't do anything extraordinary.
We simply understood that for a brand inviting people to reconnect with something as essential as their own breathing, the best thing we could do was start right there.
Before explaining our vision, we invited them to experience it.
In a world where everything seems to push us to do more, faster, and with less effort, maybe some of the best ideas still come from doing exactly the opposite.
When we listen. When we pay attention. When we allow ourselves to slow down and genuinely connect with the people in front of us.
Because no matter how much our tools, technologies, and ways of communicating change, there's one thing that never will.
There's always a person on the other side.
And sometimes, all it takes to connect with them is a second to breathe.
PS: And since we've been talking so much about breathing, here's one of my favorite Pearl Jam songs: Just Breathe. If you can, give yourself a few minutes to listen before getting back to the rest of your day.
