Back in 2016 I had the pleasure of crossing paths with Joey Hurl. Joey joined my team at The Dubs as Commercial Director, bringing with her a refreshing vibrancy. Fast forward to the present, and life has taken us both on journeys we could have hardly imagined back in our bustling Sydney office. The funny thing is that we still live only a few kms away from each other, just up in Byron Bay, in Northern NSW, 8 hours from Sydney.
Joey, has embarked on a profoundly inspiring path, turning her talents and insights towards a mission that's as noble as it is necessary. Her work in breath work and movement practices is not just a career; it's a calling—a testament to the transformative power of returning to one's core through mindful practices.
In this article, I'm excited to sit down with Joey not as an ex-colleague, but as a friend and fellow journeyer on the path of self-discovery. We dive into her transition from the high-paced world of digital media to the grounded, healing practices she champions today. Joey shares with us her journey through anxiety and overwhelm, and how breath work, movement, and connection have not only been her tools for personal healing but are also her gifts to the world through her business jogawellness.com
So Joey, in your own words, what do you do?
I am a Breathwork Guide, Mentor and Founder of Mana Kai and Joga Wellness.
My mission is to help people come home to themselves by moving from the head to the heart, and reconnecting people with their inner world, with the truth of who they are.I support people through breathwork facilitation, nervous system regulation, movement practices, and visualisations which create a deep connection with not only ourselves, but also with the people in our lives and with the land we live on.
Ultimately I support people with finding the freedom that they're seeking and I help people come back to that inner place of peace and joy.
Can you tell me about your journey starting a business in the wellness space?
I originally started a blog called Coconuts and Salty Kisses back in 2014, because I had a passion for wellness and looking after my own health and wanted to share what I was learning.At that time I had a fear of imperfection and so I really struggled to move forward with the business in the way that I had liked or hoped. If something didn't feel perfect, I didn't want it out in the world. So that was a big part of my early journey; being okay with failing. And also understanding that it's not a failure if you learn from it.
Once I learned that lesson, I feel like my business propelled forwards and it has changed shape a lot since then. It became The Coco Hub, which was more focused on supporting wellness brands with their marketing, and then from there I started Joga Wellness, which is the latest iteration of the business.
It has been growing and shifting and changing gradually over time.Now, I'm predominantly a breathwork coach, mentor and somatic guide. I teach various forms of movement, especially somatics and getting people into their bodies and understanding and interpreting messages from their bodies.Through these iterations I've discovered how much I love learning! I'm always learning something new, a new skill or a new offering for the world, that I then add to my business and offerings.
One of the biggest things I've learned is the importance of integration and full embodiment in everything that I'm teaching.My journey, like other business owners, has been very up and down; one moment you can be feeling on top of the world, next minute you feel overwhelmed with the amount of things you have to do. One minute you feel really confident in your gift, the next minute you feel like an imposter. And it's just this kind of flow between the two and I think once you see it as flow and not as a battle, then you can really thrive.
Once you're not scared of failing and you see it as a learning opportunity, I think that's when you start to really grow in your business. Overall it has been a beautiful ride, and I have learned a huge amount along the way!
Have you had any defining moments that have led you to where you are today?
During Covid a lot of the businesses that I was working with dropped away because they didn't have budgets, it was a challenging time for a lot of people. At this point I had built my business around supporting other wellness brands with their marketing and building their websites and a lot of my income dropped away.
Through a lot of self reflection it helped me to see that what I was most afraid of doing was getting my own business and my own offerings out into the world and being fully seen myself!
So all of the client work dropping away was a big moment for me because it meant I had to just focus on sharing my own gifts and getting my own offerings into the world, which felt so scary at the time. But now I'm so grateful that happened, because I may not be where I am now if it hadn’t.
Another defining moment for me was feeling the power of breathwork for the first time! I'd never fully connected with my business until I incorporated breathwork, which is why this is predominantly what I do now and I feel so in alignment and confident in my offerings because I personally know the power of this work.
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Have you had any challenges or setbacks you have overcome?
There have been many challenges and setbacks over the past ten years but I see them as learnings and ultimately they've propelled me forwards.
I wouldn't be the person I am today, and I wouldn't be conducting business the way I am today if I hadn't gone through those challenges and had those setbacks. I can't think of anything specific right now, but I know there have been many, almost daily.
There's always a challenge that you're facing when you run your own business, but I think it's just about how you handle that challenge and how you see it. Because if you can see it as learning, then you're winning. They're not failures, they’re opportunities for growth.
What does success mean to you?
Success for me is the impact that I'm having in the world. I think previously, when I was first starting out 10 years ago I saw success as the amount of money you make in your business. Today, success for me is really about, not even how many people I'm impacting, but the depth of impact I can have with each person I work with.
Somebody said to me the other day that for every one person that you support with this kind of work, around 10,000 people can be affected. And that just blew my mind! Understanding that if one person raises their vibration or regulates their nervous system, the ripple effect on the people around them can be huge. I really loved that.
Success for me is about impact. It's about how you can support even just one person and the change that can have on not only their life, but then everybody else around them.
What drives you to do what you do?
I'm so deeply passionate about bringing the practices that have helped me move through really dark times in my life, to the world.
I created Mana Kai back in 2022 to bring all of the life changing modalities that have supported me into one transformational practice. Mana Kai is an all-inclusive wellness community and incorporates movement, breathwork, visualisation and connection. The purpose is to help people remember who they are, beneath all the stories and beneath the ego mind, beneath what our ego tells us to be true. If you can go beneath those stories, it creates so much freedom and so much joy and so much peace in your life because the practices bring you back to the core of who you are; which is peace and joy.
Each workshop and experience flows purposefully, creating a safe and intentional space to release layers of the past, grief, trauma, sadness, and limiting beliefs while continually illuminating the essence of your most authentic self.
Seeing the impact of these practices on the people I've worked with is what drives me, because this work is life changing, it's transformational.
What keeps you awake at night?
I think a big thing for me at the moment is I'm still running solo, so there are a thousand things on my to do list every day. I have such big ambitions and such big dreams and I guess a big part of me wants to make them all happen now! So I have so many things that I want to do and so many things I want to create each day.
But obviously, you have to be realistic with your time, and you have to find a balance, especially in the work that I do, between regulating my own nervous system and embodying the practices that I teach, as well as putting the time into creating and being a business owner.
So I think that's what keeps me awake at night. The amount of things on my to do list! But I'm getting better and better at prioritising and structuring my days and my weeks and my months so that I don't have nights where I'm stressing or I'm overthinking.
Do you have a daily ritual or any practices you incorporate into your life and what are the benefits?
I love this question about daily rituals and practices because I have many rituals and practices I do every day!
My rituals really support me in not only regulating my nervous system, but keeping me in a higher vibration so that I can keep moving forwards, even through the challenges.
So my morning ritual from my shamanic training is a cacao ceremony. A heart based ritual, where you're connecting with gratitude, you're connecting with daily prayers, not only for yourself, but for those around you. Then breathwork and movement, visualisation/meditation and self concepting.
The main benefits of these are optimising my health, getting really clear on my visions, listening to the whispers of my heart and connecting with the deep inner knowing of within, where all the answers exist, as opposed to living from my head and listening to the stories of my mind.
These practices really help me come back to myself and to hear my truth so that I can live and work from that space.
How do you set your goals in business?
With setting goals, I'm always learning new tactics and techniques and structures. More recently, I have set myself a big 5 year goal and I've worked out everything that I would need to do to get to that.
I've defined the goal, worked out what my core mission is and reversed engineered what needs to happen and when it needs to happen, and I've set priorities and then a plan for three months, for the month, for the week, and then each day the tasks that need to be completed.
This is a new structure I'm trialing, which sounds very simple, and I think it is, but I haven't really had a proper structure in place that has kept me on track in the way for a while. I have a good feeling about this, because even though it's very structured, it also feels spacious, and I can feel a sense of freedom from knowing what the structure is and then not being awake at night because I know just what I need to do that day, that week, that month etc.
I think it's important to set goals, but also to not hold on to them too tightly because I think you can really restrict yourself. It's a lot more expansive to be open. You need a goal and a vision, but then be open to how that unfolds.
What is your advice for someone starting out in their own business today?
Just start.
I remember just feeling so stuck and so scared to take those first steps. I had imposter syndrome, and I didn't think I was good enough. There was always some new reason why I couldn't start.
The best possible thing you can do is start and learn, and keep learning and keep growing because you can't learn and grow until you're in it. And if I'd known that, I probably would have been five years ahead of where I am now, but I also trust that it's all divine and perfect, so I'm exactly where I'm meant to be. And I’ve learnt all the lessons exactly when I was meant to.
But if I could help someone starting out, it would be just start, face the fear and do it anyway!
11. What do you want your legacy, lasting impact to be?
I want to help as many people as possible to awaken that deep sense of joy and peace and to create freedom.
To awaken and expand as many hearts as possible.
To help people discover their infinite potential, and also to create connection to each other, to our own selves and to all of creation, to the earth around us, to everything living on this planet.
I think it's so important to come back to creation and connection which ultimately brings us back to ourselves and to a feeling of peace.
My big audacious goal I’m working on is to bring the Mana Kai practices and rituals to millions of people globally and to create a supportive and thriving community which encourages inclusivity, authenticity, compassion and kindness; a safe container to trust your inner guidance and journey back to you.
For anyone curious about the power of breathwork I would recommend you give it a try. It really can be transformative, speaking from personal experience of one of Joey's Mana Kai experiences, that's me on the far right, in the daggy t-shirt!
Get in touch with Joey here.
