We recently had the chance to connect with Marina Kay and have shared our conversation below.
Marina, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What do you think is misunderstood about your business?
A common misconception is that I “teach breathing exercises.” In reality, my work helps women stop abandoning themselves, rewrite old patterns, and rebuild the internal safety needed for powerful leadership. Breathwork is the medium, but identity, confidence, and self trust are the result. What’s misunderstood about my breathwork business is how deeply transformational this work actually is. This isn’t just wellness – it’s leadership development through the body.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Marina Kay, founder of Women Who Breathe, a company redefining leadership for women through the lens of breathwork and nervous system mastery. My approach is unique because it doesn’t separate performance from wellbeing – it integrates them. I combine functional breathing mechanics, somatic psychology, transformational breathwork and mindset coaching to help women shift out of survival mode and into their most grounded, intuitive, and creative selves. I work with women who carry a lot – ambition, pressure, responsibility – and want tools that actually change how they feel and function. Right now, I’m creating a suite of programs and experiences that bring this work to teams, organizations, and women across the world.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
One of the most transformative moments of my life happened during one of my own breathwork sessions where I felt my body release years of tension I didn’t even know I was carrying. After leaving my corporate career at WeWork Headquarters in Manhattan and leaving New York City I spent 3 years living and studying healing traditions in Latin America. Somatic breathwork was one of the most powerful experiences I tried during that time.
In that moment I understood that healing doesn’t come from pushing harder – it comes from softening. That experience shaped how I see the world, my work, and the women I support. It showed me that real change begins in the nervous system long before it shows up in the mind. So often we try to solve the problems of our life through the mind alone : rationalizing, strategizing, planning and talking about them with others. What I realized is that all the answers we seek are actually located in the body – in our somatic experiences and trauma patterns that are stored physically – and releasing them is the key to our full self expression and freedom.
If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
If I could speak to my inner child, I would tell her – “You’re allowed to be seen. You don’t have to shrink yourself to keep others satisfied or safe. You were never meant to be the quiet one holding everything together in the background. Your voice matters, your needs matter, and your truth deserves to be heard. The world doesn’t get brighter when you disappear – it gets brighter when you step into who you really are and let yourself be witnessed, heard, and valued.”
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? Where are smart people getting it totally wrong today?
A lot of brilliant people still believe that output equals worth. They measure their value by how much they produce, how fast they move, and how much they can handle, but sustainable success isn’t a sprint – it’s a marathon. When you ignore your body’s signals and needs in favor of constant achievement, you lose the very energy and presence you need to lead well. I’ve seen so many leaders push through the need for rest and recharging for so long, that they ended up losing their edge in pursuit of more productivity. What we need to unlearn as a society is that rest is unproductive, and see it as the direct path to more clarity, vision and fulfillment in our work.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
Something I started to focus on more this year is not letting my phone steal my presence and choosing real connection over digital consumption. As a community builder in the wellness space, I notice the increasing need and desire that people have for in person connection. Connecting in person is irreplaceable, so if I knew I had 10 years left, I would prioritize in person connection as much as possible.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.womenwhobreathe.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womenwhobreathe/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marina-kay
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@womenwhobreathe
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@womenwhobreathe
InsightTimer: https://insighttimer.com/marinakay
Email: marina@womenwhobreathe.com
Image Credits
Raphael Umscheid [for professional shots] – all event shots were captured by me.
