Podcast Description
Welcome to the Work Hard Sleep Well Podcast with Kris Nowak, where we explore the million dollar question - how can we optimize our sleep for maximum performance, productivity, and success in our busy lives as entrepreneurs and working professionals? Join me as I document my journey of discovery in real time and share practical tips and tricks from successful entrepreneurs, working professionals and sleep doctors to help you achieve the best sleep possible.
As we explore different sleeping schedules, proven tricks, and changing relationships with sleep over time, this podcast is tailored for entrepreneurs and working professionals who want to improve their sleep quality, increase productivity, and perform at their best. We understand that you have a lot on your plate, and our aim is to help you manage stress and achieve a better work-life balance.
Through interviews with successful entrepreneurs and sleep experts, we provide unique insights and perspectives on sleep and rest, with a focus on productivity and performance. You can look forward to hearing from a diverse range of guests and answering intriguing questions that you won't find elsewhere. Join us on this journey to discover the secrets to unlocking your true potential through restful sleep.
Episode Transcript
Kris Nowak
Welcome to the Work Hard Sleep Well podcast with Kris Nowak, where we explore the million dollar question. How can we optimize our sleep for maximum performance, productivity, and success in our busy lives as entrepreneurs and working professionals? Join me as I document my journey of discovery in real time and share practical tips and tricks from successful entrepreneurs, working professionals, and sleep doctors to help you achieve the best sleep possible.
Welcome to the episode eight. Today I'm having a guest on my podcast, Niles Drasites of YourOcean. I'm your host Kris Nowak and I'm super excited to get into this. And right away off the bat, I wanted to say thank you for listening to this podcast. And I'm hoping you're doing well. You know, I'm recording this episode on a beautiful Wednesday morning and I'm sending nothing but good energy and good vibes your way.
And so this week we'll be discussing, we'll learn who Niles Dresites is. We'll learn about his company, your ocean. We'll discuss sleep optimization techniques and we'll chat about entrepreneurship because that's the good stuff, right? And this podcast is also about entrepreneurship. It's not only about sleep optimization. It's about how sleep optimization ties into entrepreneurship, which is a massive part of winning in business, in my opinion. And so by listening to this episode.
You will learn sleep optimization techniques like deep stretching and deep breathing and stress and anxiety management techniques. And on top of all of that value that you will get, you know, the best one hour spent of your time because Niles say pretty cool did as well. Okay. So how are you doing Niles? It's great to have you here, man. I'm excited for this.
Niles Drasites
I'm doing amazing. Thanks for having me, Kris. I appreciate it.
Kris Nowak
Yeah, of course man. So where are you from?
Niles Drasites
Yeah, so I'm based in Charleston, South Carolina. I was originally in Columbia for, I would say, 28 years. So I've been in Charleston for the past four years. So in the same state, so South Carolina.
Kris Nowak
Oh, Columbia, Columbia in South Carolina. I thought maybe Columbia, that country.
Niles Drasites
Yeah. Oh no, this is the capital of South Carolina. So yeah.
Kris Nowak
Cool, cool. So you're American, like I live in Calgary, Alberta, so we're not too far away from each other. So that's pretty cool, man. Okay, so, you know, like for somebody that's listening to this and they never heard of you before, can you share with us like a little bit about yourself, like your story? You know, I think it's super interesting to always hear about people's like stories because everybody has a unique story. It's a unique journey. So I'm always super curious to learn about that.
Niles Drasites
Yeah, for sure. So my journey has been a different journey. I would say when I grew up, always big in the sports. I was an athlete, played basketball, baseball, football, and actually went to college. So my first two years I played basketball at a, in the States they call it division two. So like a smaller type of college. And I walked on, played there for two years. I had a really bad back injury.
And what happened to me was I had to stop playing. My decision was to quit after my sophomore season. And I moved back to my hometown. And then from there, I worked odd jobs three years later. So I was probably in my mid-20s, I decided to go back to school, get my masters in teaching. So I used to be a special ed teacher, did that for three years.
In my mind though, I knew it wasn't what I wanted to do. I wanted to help more people on a bigger scale and I always wanted to start my business. That wasn't until last year, January of 2022, where I opened up my own wellness business and just backtracking the reason why the wellness business came about is because March of 2020 when COVID happened, I was in a real dark place. And for whatever reason, I was doing some research.
self-exploring and I found meditation on the Calm app. If any of you listeners have heard of the Calm app, there's an app you can download free on your iPhone and I started listening and the first time I remember, it was a guided meditation and something just kind of like instant calm release of some stress, anxiety, because for a long time I had real bad social anxiety.
would get anxious a lot, really stressed. And meditation, I always thought the people that meditated, you know, they were like weird, it's kind of like a, like a woo type of thing. Yeah, and I was unsure, but then I was at no choice. I was at a real low spot in my life and I instantly just loved it. And then from that day just kept doing it. And then from there I found breath work probably about a year later.
Kris Nowak
Like a woo woo, yeah yeah.
Niles Drasites
I started practicing that and that again, like the first time I did breathing with somebody on a YouTube video for free. Same thing, I instantly felt like more calm, more relaxed. My mind was more clear and I was like, wow, this is, I mean, I came across some things that I can help people and then from there, deep stretching and all this kind of worked itself together into my wellness business now to where I can, the things that I've.
grown with and experienced and have come out through, I now can share that with certain types of people that are, whether it's they lack their sleep. There's another thing about me, real quick. I used to get sick a lot and my immune system was real low. I think the main part was because my sleep, I would always breathe through my mouth, so a mouth breather, and then doing my own research and experimenting with nose breathing.
doing that for the past couple months. I hardly ever get sick anymore, don't have allergies. Something so simple as breathing in and out through your nose can really have a profound effect on your wellbeing, your mind, your sleep, the way you think, like your cognitive performance, just everything. And yeah, that's just a little backstory on me and where I've started and why I have do what I do now with my wellness business.
Kris Nowak
That's awesome, man. I mean, there's a lot of things I wanna kinda like backtrack to, but starting with, so when you said like you always felt that like you, there's more for you, you know, and you made a decision to go from being a teacher, like working in like education to pursuing like entrepreneurship. What was the sort of like catalyst that got you to make that decision? Was it like you were thinking about it like over the time?
Or like you just one day you just decided, okay, I'm doing this. Like I'm just switching everything off. Cause I think everybody has that moment when you, when you consider, you know, maybe you work like conventional nine to five, and it's very interesting to hear about that for, for other people. Unfortunately, there's typically like something bad happening where humans are kind of like weird creatures, unless something happens, uh, we kind of, we're not really want, we don't really want to change very much.
Niles Drasites
Right.
Kris Nowak
Unfortunately, it doesn't have to be this way. I'm just curious, so what was that factor that made you decide to go into business for yourself?
Niles Drasites
Yeah, that's a great question. I feel like for me, it started like five years ago when I was living in Columbia. I was just, I guess I just dreaming thinking about my future, what I really wanted and, you know, got into teaching. I love the kids, but all the other stuff like there are meetings, the administration, which is, you know, like the bosses, they would micromanage, especially the
principle and it just little things like that and then I just knew like because I was already like awakening to personal growth development so I would say for me it was a progressive journey and then eventually when I was teaching I was kind of like wow I got to like do something and I just took that risk and I would say my girlfriend was a catalyst in that because she has helped me a lot on my journey these past two years of taking more risk
just going out there and getting it and she was in my ear about like hey you should do this and also for me I've been growing so much that I guess it was just a natural part of my progression was to hey leave the teaching profession it's been good to me no regrets but I know there's something bigger out there for me to reach more people and just be more satisfied because
teaching it satisfied me just being around the kids but everything else it was kind of I would say I got burnout that's the thing I got burn out with teaching I had stress anxiety I was still doing you know the stuff that's helped me but I knew there's something more and I just finally took that step and it was you know around I guess winter time winter break I would say and then I launched the business I think it was January 18 2022 I just took that
and just went for it.
Kris Nowak
Awesome, man. I'm super, super happy to hear that you have a partner that's supporting your vision. You're growing together. I think that's kind of, that itself is worth something for sure. But, you know, just trusting, like when you want to become an entrepreneur, just putting like some sort of a level of trust that it's all going to work out and, you know, you do focus on what you can control and the rest of it, just trusting that things are going to work out for you. And that's how it all starts. And I think that's crucial here.
Okay, so tell us about your Ocean. So this is the company that you started, right? Your Ocean, I'm super curious to hear about it. What do you guys do?
Niles Drasites
Yeah, so at Your Ocean, the wellness business, what we do is we teach or I teach professionals how to manage their stress, anxiety, improve sleep, increase flexibility if people need that. And then also what I recently have gotten into is improving mindset, changing the mindset, then also improving self-image as well. And I do that online, so like I use Zoom. I work with
with clients one-on-one. And then I also do group settings online and I also do group in person, or I go speak at different businesses, corporations. I even went and spoke at an active adult community, 55 and up, helping them with their flexibility. So it kind of just ranges. But I've worked with athletes as well, and kids, athletes, active adults, 55 and up, and just other professionals.
Kris Nowak
That's awesome. How did you come up with the name? I think that the part of like coming up with the name in every business is kind of interesting. Can be definitely tricky to come up with something catchy and you want to have the social handles available and there are ways around it. But like, so how did you come up with your ocean?
Niles Drasites
Yeah, it took a little bit. I had this little sketch pad and I would write down all these names. I was like, no, that's not it. And then finally, I was thinking, like my own journey, when you think about the ocean, it's huge, vast, deep. And it made me think of our potential, our mind, like how our mind is pretty much limitless. But we set limits, myself included, in the past on what we can do. But if we can...
know tap into that we have just like the ocean we have depth massive change growth and expansion and that's how the name started and it and i even had the name like yo just like the acronym it kind of just kind of like flowed like your ocean yo and uh yeah just based on you so like the programs are what's best for him for uh he or she so
For instance, like your sleep program is not like my sleep program, it's your sleep program. So if you do these things that I teach you, it could help change a lot of things in your life. Granted, it's not a cure, but it's gonna help catapult you. So yeah, that's the name.
Kris Nowak
Yeah, I love that. I love that. I think it's a great way to think about it, like making a comparison to the ocean. The only person that can actually limit your potential is you. Oftentimes we set these boundaries and these false beliefs about what we can accomplish. And for some very strange reason, we oftentimes look at other people and we think, oh wow, they're killing it. And like...
we're thinking more of other people than we're thinking of ourselves. And it's unfortunate because, you know, it all starts with yourself image. Just imagine how your life would look like and how it would turn out if every morning you woke up and you said, you said to yourself, I can do this. You know, I'm great. I'm making progress. I'm learning. I'm getting better every single day. Just being your biggest fan sort of versus being your biggest critic. Like when something happens, it doesn't work out.
Oftentimes we're the first to kind of, you know, talk ourselves down sort of. So yeah, that's, that's very interesting. So moving on here, stress and anxiety. I wanted to talk about this. I think it's very important in running a business being an entrepreneur. We were definitely exposed to stress and anxiety. So what is stress and like, how, how do you deal with stress in business?
Niles Drasites
That's a great, that's a big question. So yeah, stress and anxiety. I feel like stress, obviously people know there's good stress and there's bad stress. I would say for me, in my experience and what I've gone through, the biggest thing, or one of the biggest things that's helped me out is deep breathing. And if anybody does deep breathing, they know that it's a quick and easy way to lower that stress.
and lower that anxiety so you can have more head space, more calm, more relaxed. And then you can focus on whatever business that you run, like for you, Kris, you got the e-commerce business, you're selling products online, and you also have your sleeper low. You can be in a better head space, and then from there, you're more creative. Same thing with meditation. If business owners, if they've gotten into meditation, they know if you meditate, you can come into a more still space.
more calm, more relaxed. And then for me, whenever I meditate, it's weird, like more creative ideas, they just start coming in, they start flowing, versus if I'm not meditating, I'm just go, go. Those things can't come in because I'm not going inward. So I would say if someone is a business owner, entrepreneur, and they feel kind of stuck, they can just start off five minutes meditating, breathing, and then from there, they'll have a more clear headspace.
and then they'll be in a better state to create, if that makes sense.
Kris Nowak
Absolutely, I personally been meditating for it's been over three years now that I started meditating. Once I started I could never really stop at this point. I just really see no better way to start your morning, none with a meditation, you know, set yourself up on the right frequency for the day, feel amazing, rather than just like waking up and starting to react to these outside
Factors whatever it's happening notifications of all these things right like From what I understand now. It's it's about grounding yourself and going back in the nature with all this technology We have available You know it's sort of becoming harder and harder if you're not actively taking action To to ground yourself and go back to what actually matters right like we're not really designed to Be looking at our screens for the entire day like blue light
at certain hours, like later towards the evening, it's actually very bad for your sleep. If you look at that blue light, but also like just getting yourself grounded. So just sitting in silence with your thoughts, being okay with that, just connecting to the source sort of like I like to think about it and just going back into nature. I think these things actually do make a massive difference in managing stress. And so another thing about stress, I think it's very interesting. For some reason.
same thing can happen to two people and one person isn't very stressed about that situation and another person is like totally freaking out and they're like totally stressed and so I've been like thinking about this and so what is the difference between these two people that they have the same situation happen to them and one of them is actually managing it no problem and the other person is like totally freaked out freaked out about it I think it's actually their perception
So it all starts with how you internalize the situation and just being aware of that and working towards being able to internalize stress in a different way. It would be a great starting point.
So I actually did, Niles was kind enough to share with me his sleep program. And I did start with the first chapter already, which is chapter about deep stretching, deep breathing, some meditation. And I have to say, like I found it really amazing. Personally, I train mixed martial arts. So I train like a lot five days a week, oftentimes.
And then on top of that, like I also run and whatnot. So I'm always training. I'm never really stretching properly. So when I did it for the first time, I actually found an amazing difference it did to my sleep. Because it's just, especially my hips, everything's so tight, you know? So I'm just curious, how did you make a connection that stretching could actually improve your sleep? Because for me, it was the last thing I would think of when it comes to improving your sleep.
Niles Drasites
That's a great question. Yeah, so I got certified a couple months ago through deep stretching, actually with the same instructor mentor that I got certified with breathing.
And yeah, you wouldn't think either, but when it comes to stretching, the way I was taught is, for instance, you're gonna inhale for four, and you're gonna exhale for eight. So when you think about it, if we're gonna go back to the science, so we have our nervous system, right? So we got one side is parasympathetic, that's rest and digest, you're relaxed, right? Flip side, you have sympathetic. People know this.
Fire flight like a tiger's chasing you Freak out and then like all things go crazy, right? And there's those two sides so with deep stretching We are actually Tricking our nervous system to flip Into that parasympathetic rest and digest which is also good for sleep. So when you stretch a muscle Anywhere from two to five minutes the research shows you get the most benefit
Kris Nowak
Yeah.
Niles Drasites
but not even the flexibility though. You're gonna be more relaxed. So I know you Kris, you told me when you did it, you pretty much fell asleep and that's because you shifted your body into the parasympathetic nervous system, which is perfect for relaxing your body, so your body and your mind, and that can cause you to fall asleep, you know, feel more tired, and also,
It's good if someone ate a meal. When you're on the parasympathetic, it's gonna help with your digestion. People don't realize that. When you breathe deep like that, whether you just breathe or you stretch, it's gonna help moving that blood to your stomach and it's gonna help digest food. And it also would sleep, so it's huge. So deep stretching, you wouldn't think it could.
have those effects, but it definitely can.
Kris Nowak
Yeah, it's amazing to me. It was literally like the last thing I would think of that would actually improve the quality of my sleep. I think it's very interesting. There's so many different things that you can actually do to sleep better so you can feel better. And oftentimes when we think of what can I do to sleep better, you think of maybe some sort of supplement you could take or like medications. And meanwhile, these things potentially could help.
but there's so many other things you could explore first, like stretching, breathing, optimizing your sun intake, like how dark it is in your bedroom. When it really, I think when it boils down to, what does it take to actually sleep better consistently? A lot of it, it's literally just being disciplined and having implemented the routines and habits that you repeat daily, so you can set yourself in the right mood.
you know, in the evening, wind down and whatnot. And that's going to help you sleep better. It's really as simple as that for the most people, at least. Unless you have like some actual, like, you know, like health conditions related to sleep, then maybe it's going to take more than that. But for the most people, these things are definitely like the low hanging fruits, sort of, that should definitely be explored first before looking into anything else.
Okay, so tell me, so now also you help people with mindset and like self image, who are sort of like the inspirations or teachers or mentors that you follow that you get your mindset from?
Niles Drasites
Yeah, I would say Bob Proctor, so online mentor, Dr. Joe Dispenza, who my girlfriend got me into him, I guess, two years ago, and then Bruce Lipton. So those three.
Are all very similar and they deal with the sciences. They just use different terminology for Attracting what you want having a positive attitude Changing your mindset. It's all about perspective. Like you mentioned Kris. It's all about perspective. It's how you You can either react to something or you respond and those three all talk about you need to Know you become aware and you pause and then you respond versus react So I would say those three and then with my own personal
life, I would say, an incredible mentor came into my life right at the end of January. His name is Basil Kraynov and he's Bulgarian, reached out to me on Facebook randomly and brought me into community. Me and him, we connect and we talk every day. So I have someone that I can call. I can text him, hey, what do I do about this goal? Can you help me with this? He's basically another accountability partner.
So I would say those four have been huge in my growth and with my businesses, with my own personal life. So yeah.
Kris Nowak
Yeah, that's amazing. I actually discovered Bob Proctor probably over three years ago now as well. When I was before I actually started like my first business, you know, I was just working like a nine to five job, went to the college, ended up doing something. I wasn't really content doing. And then I just started like looking for, uh, like the sort of mindset that would help me get on the frequency.
or I could actually start making some changes in my life. And Bob Proctor was a huge part of it for me. I really like all of the staff, most of the stuff that he actually like teaches. I really like it. There's a amazing library, like the ultimate library of Bob Proctor on Audible. Highly recommend it. I listened to it like several times. And yeah, it's amazing. Like now Bob already passed away, but-
You know, his channel is still growing. His business partner is growing it. And the impact he has made on the world is absolutely amazing. Like he's, he's passed away now, but we're still talking about it. And it's just going to continue and continue for a very long time. Cause the impact he's done is just massive. The paradigm, the paradigm shift. Uh, I think accountability is a huge factor in, in running a successful business. If you're just.
Niles Drasites
Right.
Kris Nowak
thinking about starting a business, having somebody there to keep you accountable, to keep your feet to the fire sort of, it makes a huge difference. It does because like even in my first business, looking back at what I've done, I actually had a business partner and we kept ourselves accountable, right? Like, you know, we show up every day, these are the things we say we're gonna do and you know, it's just...
the aspect of having somebody in your corner, that maybe you have some obstacle that you have to overcome. Maybe you have to solve some sort of a problem just by the fact of speaking it out loud, writing it on a paper, like sending it on the chat, letting somebody else look at it, it makes a huge difference. As they say, I think in Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill, he said about it, when you actually have a group of people come together,
then like the mental power gets combined. And it's like another like entity, you know, and it's so true, it's so true. Have you ever had a problem where you had to, you know, solve some sort of an issue and you kind of stacked yourself but you know, you start talking to somebody about it. And then like you find a solution together. It's crucial, like accountability is crucial in making stuff happen in business. And you know, it can come in different many forms.
You could join groups, you could have a business partner, like sign up for coaching. There's so many different ways you could make that happen. And so speaking of like accountability, I'm just kind of curious because, you know, like oftentimes we watch like content online and some, you know, entrepreneurs, some people, they kind of try to present it that, you know, starting a business is just, it's an easy thing and you're just gonna start it and it's just gonna take off.
And you know, meanwhile, based on my experience being an entrepreneur for three years now, yes, it's possible that every now and then you're going to have, you're going to find a perfect business opportunity and it's going to absolutely take off and you know, sort of comes like easily to you and whatnot. But for the most part, actually, no, like this is not the way it is. So I'm just curious, you know, so you establish your company now, what are some of the challenges that you encountered starting this business and you know.
some of the areas where you had to improve yourself to get this going, to get it successful. I'm very curious to hear about that.
Niles Drasites
Yeah, I would say not realizing all that because for me I started out as a single member LLC and so you know you have to.
focus on financial side of things, how to marketing yourself, promoting yourself, and then actually learning, so I had to learn the skills of more of wellness. So, you know, so people see me as a professional, I don't just go out there with no certification, so I had to get certified and a couple of different, like modalities of healing and growth. And then even like,
checking in on podcasts and audios, things like that to help with even more skills like courses. So all of those things played a role. And like I mentioned, you know this Kris, you carry a lot of hats and I guess people think it's easy. I mean, there's a lot of challenges. I wouldn't say it's hard, especially if you love it. But it's a lot more challenging running a business and a successful business versus...
If you just clock in, clock out, doing a job, I'm not knocking jobs, but there's, like you can come home after work and chill versus if you're a business owner, like me and you, sometimes we're never off the clock because you know you gotta get more things done if you put in more hours. Sometimes we sacrifice sleep. I'm a sleep guy, but sometimes I sacrifice sleep because I know that I have goals that I have to reach, my mentor's holding me accountable.
and I gotta hit those goals versus someone that's working a nine to five, they don't have those other challenges. Both have challenges, it's a different challenge. And those are things that I had to learn and then, you know, I didn't realize that you have to network in a business. What I learned from mentors is anybody that runs a business, you have to network. If you don't have a network, you don't have results, you don't have people, right? You don't have money. So I've had to, you know, gradually work on.
creating a bigger network so I can scale my business. So all those aspects, I've definitely learned through experience trial and error.
Kris Nowak
Yeah, 100%. I mean, like when you start your own business, you're going to, it's basically a journey of personal development on all different aspects of running a business. You know, like you started an LLC, now you have to figure out like accounting, bookkeeping. Now you have to figure out sales, like how to promote yourself marketing, all of this stuff. And you know, depending on what your background is, uh, certain things may be harder for you to learn.
And you have to learn all of them. And it's, it's a challenge, right? But I think in the end, it's, it's definitely worth it because in my opinion, there's nothing like entrepreneurship that will actually give you the feeling of control. Like you're steering your life in a certain direction. Like you're actually in control of this. You know, you could, you could basically say, uh, so who's, who's in charge here? Like you're in the charge. Um,
But yeah, no, so in terms of the network, this is something I realized as well myself and I haven't really been networking with people enough. And I actually just realized this recently, like my coach kind of made me realize this, your network is so important. Everything operates based on relationships. Like we oftentimes think, oh no, I'm just going to focus on marketing myself or just like doing certain things. But like think about it.
the way everything works, if you know somebody, right? And for instance, they own a certain business and you're a friend with that person, and you have a good relationship with them and you both like each other. Then if you come from that perspective of reaching out to them, and maybe it's some sort of a collaboration, maybe it's some sort of an opportunity, what are the odds that this person is going to be more interested in working with you versus when you have absolutely no relationship with this person and you just kind of reach out to them.
You just kind of want to work with them. I had to learn about this the hard way. When I started SleeperLow, I was trying to reach out to certain business owners and I was making it extremely transactional. This is what I give you, this is what you get, sort of. Meanwhile, it can work every now and then, but ultimately, I don't think that's really an ideal way to do things. You want to actually build valuable relationships with people, with like-minded people and then you're on the same frequency.
Niles Drasites
I'm going to say that.
Kris Nowak
You share same ideas. It's great. So relationships are definitely the key. And just to add to that, like if you have a strong network, you could actually lose like everything you have today. And you could start like over tomorrow again. And, you know, they can, they can help you. You can help each other to, to get it like off the ground, like match faster versus if you really have no relationships, then you kind of buy yourself. So they're very important.
Niles Drasites
I agree.
Kris Nowak
Yeah. So you mentioned like earlier today that, you know, like you had struggles with your sleep. You struggle, you struggle with your sleep. So how did you struggle with your sleep? Like recalling back, like with everything you understand about sleep now and looking back at the things maybe you did or you didn't do, how were these like struggles like manifested in your life?
Niles Drasites
Yeah.
Yeah, I think this boils down to what you mentioned earlier, habits. I had terrible habits. Like I would eat late at night. You know, those are those things you do as a kid. I remember looking back, I was a huge basketball fan. I would stay up late because I was a Lakers guy. Kobe was my favorite player of all time. Rest in peace to the GOAT. But yeah, when I was younger, I would stay up late because I'm on the East Coast. But Kobe's on the West Coast, so games over there.
Kris Nowak
Yeah.
Niles Drasites
730 games over here, three hours ahead, 1030. So I'd stay up late, eat, play, I was a huge gamer, eat food. So I think for me, in my experience, it was poor habits and also not being aware of those habits until I started getting into personal growth, personal development five years ago. And then it even escalated once I mentioned in my story, I was in a real dark place.
March of 2020, meditation came in and I started focusing on my sleep. I did some research. I got into certain mentors and online professionals that are actually sleep experts and I started to be my own pet guinea pig, test it out on myself and found things that worked. And then from there, it was all based on habits. So I created...
a sleep routine for myself when I go to bed. Also, a routine when I get up. So the morning affects the rest of your day, right? So I had an evening routine, morning routine, I started to use certain products. I know Kris, we talked about the Sleep Smarter book. I took some gems from Sean Stevenson's book, who's the author of that. He's a great podcaster and author.
From other people I've took certain supplements and things to use and then the meditation, the breathing, gratitude has been a huge thing for me. All of these things have been a catalyst, but it all boils down to habits. I had bad habits, now I have better habits. Obviously they can keep getting better, but I've definitely come a long way in creating like optimal sleep habits.
Kris Nowak
That's awesome. And so by the way, Niles did let me know about Sleep Smarter by Sean Stevenson book. I started reading that book. It really seems amazing so far. I'm always curious to find different education and resources to learn more about sleep because I'm all about like optimizing sleep from a perspective for just maximum performance for entrepreneurship. And you know, so
You mentioned like during COVID, like you struggle with like anxiety. I think a lot of people were going through like very like anxious period of their lives at the time, myself included. And so mental health is something that is very important. Like nowadays it's, I kind of on some level, I think it's kind of getting worse. And so why is that? Like, why are people struggling with like mental health so much from one side? You know, we're getting.
less human interaction with people because like, so we're all like, a lot of people are starting to work from home. So it's remote work. So when you have interaction with people, it's sort of like this, like we're on a Zoom right now. It's digital, right? Meanwhile, not so long ago, this meeting would actually have to take place in person. And it's quite a different experience when you have in-person meeting, you know, you have that human connection. So...
Part of it is, you know, so we're like scrolling on social media and we're seeing like, you know, like a part of people's lives, but it doesn't give us the same fulfillment as like building like meaningful relationships. And to that, you know, like add things like not sleeping well consistently, which, you know, every now and then you could probably have like a worse night of sleep or, you know, just maybe like you prioritize your goals. You have something to do.
It's okay, but if you do this consistently, you accumulate sleep debt, which is actually going to start affecting your performance. And now you're more tent, like you're more predisposed to burnout. And when you experience burnout, then like you literally can't work for months at the time. Like you're just like totally burnout, you're not motivated. So managing anxiety and depression, some simple things you could do is literally just like, starting with optimizing your sleep.
start sleeping well, exercising consistently, eating well, start eating healthy food and then managing your stress and anxiety meditation. All of these things can really help. For some reason, we've kind of like ever since, at least from my experience, when I was in school, I was never really taught to look inside, look within.
Niles Drasites
and I'm going to leave you with that. So, thank you for listening. And I'll see you next time.
Kris Nowak
We kind of always start from my experience to look at the externals. You know, it's, it's very interesting how it is, but the key in my opinion is to actually look within and everything will start within finding that piece within you visualizing certain, you know, visions that you want to manifest in your life. It all starts with thin, you know, if, if you're like anxious right now, you could start visualizing being healthy and being calm and
Literally just like there's absolutely no limit to what you can visualize. You're the only person that puts a limit on all of this. So that's something to also keep in mind. Uh, so, okay. So you're a sleep optimization guy. I'm very curious to hear about your morning and evening routine. Briefly, if you could share, and then like, I'll share mine afterwards. Let's start with a morning routine of yours.
Niles Drasites
Yeah, so it's changed. I've had a pivot line, but recently what I do is I get up and what I do is I have a recording of myself talking through my iPhone. So if you have an iPhone, you know, you hit the audio recorder, it's like the default app. And what I do is I record myself.
It's called Auto Suggest, it's from Think and Grow Rich Napoleon Hill, it's where you speak, yeah, you speak positive affirmations, and it's about six minutes, and I put in my earbuds, and what I do is I just lay on my bed, listen to myself, because I'm reprogramming my mindset. I'm reprogramming my mindset, because for me, there may be listeners on the line, but for me, I grew up with real low self-esteem, self-confidence.
Kris Nowak
I love it.
Niles Drasites
negative self-talk and it wasn't until the past couple months where I started to do these habits and I create new habits and from my morning routine I get up I listen to myself speak it may think weird for you it was for me at first but now I actually enjoy it I look forward to hearing myself because I know that it's creating a positive outlook for me to get work done that day and to help more people
be nicer to more people, have a positive attitude for that day, and it just carries over. And then you also said my evening routine, right? You wanna know about, yeah, so evening routine, very similar, I also listen to myself, but I have gratitude, I forgot to mention, but when I get up after I listen, I have my gratitude, where I write out on a sheet of paper, in present tense, like I'm so happy and grateful now, that
Kris Nowak
Mm-hmm.
Niles Drasites
I am the best business owner or I am so happy and grateful now that I am the best servant and I provide and give the best products and services. So if we say it in present tense, it's as if we've already become that, we already have it. If anybody on the line wants to take a tip from this is start being grateful for what you have and for what you're becoming, for what you want and you put it in the present tense like Bob Proctor and these.
Incredible mentors and professionals have said it's gonna start to change your life. So I do that in the evenings I listen to myself and Also when I lay in bed so the last thing that I do in bed is I breathe so I do a deep breathing where I inhale for a count of four So what that means is I do it with nose breathing. I actually I'll give you guys a tip. I do it It's called ocean breathing
So what you do is you breathe through the back of your throat. I don't know if you guys have tried this before, but the science behind why we do this is because the vagus nerve, it's the most important nerve for turning on the parasympathetic nervous system, like I mentioned before. So the vagus nerve is the longest nerve. It runs from the base of your head, down through your body, all the way through to your digestive tract. So if you trick your nervous system, you do that.
the quickest and easiest by breathing through the back of your throat. It's like a quiet whisper sound, almost like a quiet ocean. Some people say it's like Darth Vader, but quieter. And what it does, it massages that vagus nerve, it's called your glottis. It massages that, and it's gonna switch on and trick your nervous system to put you into that parasympathetic, so you can sleep better. Instead of just breathing in and out through your nose, it's good.
But when you do the ocean breathing, you can hit it quicker and faster. So it's more effective essentially. So I do that for inhale four, through my glottis. And then I pinch and hold.
as long as I can go until I have breath hunger, which is where you feel like you're about to like suffocate or you feel like, oh, I can't get any air, you release and then you exhale for a count of eight, also through your glottis. So the reason, real quickly, why we do a longer exhale is because when you exhale, you're focused on a relaxation. So the inhale is more for sympathetic nervous system and you can think of the exhale.
scientifically as the relaxing state. So that's why you do a longer exhale. And then also the hold. All that is, is you're expanding your breath. So it's gonna make, it's gonna relax you even quicker, if that makes sense, because you're expanding the breath. And then you do a longer exhale. And I do 10 rounds while I'm laying down. People can do it sitting up, reclined, and.
That's been huge for me because it's so easy. People don't realize breathing can put you in a better state to sleep. So that's in a nutshell, pretty much my morning and evening routine. And I'll say one more thing too. What I work on is I put my phone away an hour before bed. You mentioned Kris, we look at our phones all day, blue light, the science and experts like Sean Stevenson, guys like that have mentioned.
If you want to optimize your sleep, put your phone away an hour before bed. So I do that. I gratitude you can read a book, journal. The things that I do, they may not work for you. You can take maybe a warm bath, just little things. But try and stay off your phone, tablet, TV to give your eyes and brain a rest and then you can fall asleep better. So yeah.
Kris Nowak
Wow, amazing. That's quite a few things I want to give back at here. So thank you for sharing the tip for deep breathing and relaxation. The ocean technique is so just to recap. So you inhale for four seconds, then you hold your breath for four seconds. And then by holding your nose, you exhale through your mouth for eight seconds and you repeat that for 10 times.
Niles Drasites
course.
Yep.
Yep.
Niles Drasites
10 times, yeah, it just depends. I'm more experienced, so I pinch and hold. Sometimes 10 seconds or a count of 10, it just depends. Sometimes I do it and I lose air quick and I have to let go, because you don't want to pass out, right? You want to let go, because your mouth is closed and you close your nose. I mean, you're just holding your breath. Like a free diver, they work on stuff like this to enhance performance, and I do it to enhance my sleep.
Kris Nowak
That's amazing. Thank you for sharing that. So in terms of the gratitude, and so I I'm so happy and grateful now that and this particular affirmation, I've heard it so many times, and I've seen it in so many different places and so many different entrepreneurs do this and it must work. It must work because I just keep on hearing about it. And again, and again, and again, I think it was Bob Proctor. Like he kind of came up with this initially.
Niles Drasites
You're welcome.
Kris Nowak
But what the key here is actually how you mentioned it's in the present tense, right? Because if you create an affirmation for yourself, for instance, I'm so happy that I will be a successful business owner, what this implies is that you're not that person yet, and maybe in the future you will be that person. So you sort of, on some level you emphasize that you're not that person. So when you...
Niles Drasites
Yep.
Kris Nowak
come up with these affirmations, you always want to make sure that you come up from present tense, as if you already accomplished it. And that's actually the beauty of it. Like whether it's affirmations or visualization, you actually can already feel and visualize the frequency that like you want to attract to yourself. Even if today, like you're not that person yet, and you know, your circumstances are different, you can already feel like that person. You can already put everything in place.
These affirmations, I love it. I love it and I've heard about it before. To record yourself chanting a certain affirmation because then you listen to it and it's your voice and your subconscious mind is taking that in directly from you. I think it also works from other people but I think that's even better. How did you hear about this idea to record yourself? Did you come up with this yourself? Or I'm just curious.
Niles Drasites
I did not come up with this. So my mentor, Vasile that I mentioned, he does this. I have another mentor, Desi Lopova. She's also Bulgarian. She's taught me this. And then yeah, from Bob and then his minty, Darren Gibson, who's in our community as well. All of them, like I know Darren mentioned, that was a huge thing was every night, every morning, even during the day. So I even listen to it while I work out sometimes. If I feel anxious or down or low on energy and I wanna raise my vibration.
I either listen to myself or what I've been doing in the past 30 days is I have an audio, if you guys have heard of him, one of Bob Proctor's mentors way back. And I have a, I don't have, but I listened to his 14 minute recording on YouTube on repeat. And it's just, like you said, Kris, you're just reprogramming, reprogramming. It was weird at first doing that because it's hard to commit to something for so long. Also for hearing yourself, I used to hate.
hearing myself speak, because I felt awkward and insecure about it, but now I actually like listening to myself, because I know it's helped me improve my self-image, my belief in myself. And I'll say this too, like piggybacking off of what you said with I Am So Happy and Grateful Now, like even if you say it, just my mentors say it all the time, you faked it till you make it, you're not faking it, but you're.
You're saying you're this person, and then you'll eventually become that. Because if you say, I will, you're never gonna become that. You should say, I am so happy and grateful now that money comes to me through increasing quantities, through multiple sources on a continual basis. Then it's gonna come to you versus saying, I will have this. And it all comes down to belief in yourself, your perception, your self-image, and your mindset to that. You have to fate it. I like that.
Fate it till you make it. Not fake it, but fate it. So it's having faith in yourself that you're already becoming it, and then the results will follow.
Kris Nowak
I love that. I think like on this plane, there's just so much money in wealth for everybody. There's enough for everybody. And you know, you becoming successful and wealthy, and wherever else goes you set for yourself, it doesn't actually mean like taking it away from somebody else because there's more than enough for everybody on this plane. So starting with just positive affirmations and a good mental attitude. I think that's a really great starting point. And then going back to what you mentioned, I think it's very interesting.
So, you know, we all are raised in certain way. We all have different circumstances and some people, you know, they have like harder circumstances than others. And basically the way we think about ourselves is all a result of the interactions we had most of it when we were, you know, from the day we were born to maybe the age of seven. So all the different situations that happen to you and that's how you base yourself image.
and basically how you talk to yourself and how you internalize situations. And more often than not, unfortunately, these, these programming that we have, they're actually not working in our favor. And I remember when I was first starting going into business, I was literally just repeating like positive affirmations all day long, like just like you. Like repeating them like all day long, because, you know, I had these like negative thoughts, like, you know, like you can't do this, like, why are you trying to do this? And.
all these like negative thoughts that actually don't help you anyhow. So whenever I would actually have like one of these pop, I would like counter balance it with like a positive affirmation and these things work. So you mentioned Earl Nightingale. I listened to, uh, the secret, uh, not the secret. Um, he has like another like super like popular recording. I forget the name of it. Um, this, the strangest secret, the strangest secret, I think it's called the recording, right? I listened to it like so many times on repeat as well.
Niles Drasites
So, yeah.
Kris Nowak
And so Bob Proctor actually, he was a big teacher of this, that you need to read, like you need to listen to a certain recording many, many times. It's more than just taking it once. It's more than just like listening to it once. And same with reading books. Like, you know, like, yes, if you read one book once, then like you may get like a little bit of an understanding about this book. But if you read the same book like five times, 10 times, 20 times, 30 times.
you actually start to get like a really deep understanding of what is behind the book. And you know, so it's about repetition. It's not only, you know, like, yeah, like you can say affirmation once, but unless you start repeating it like constantly and constantly, it's probably not going to do like all that much, it's about repetition. And so tying back to like morning and evening routine, I just wanted to add something. So that's amazing that you do that. Like me as an entrepreneur,
I like to, you know, wake up in the morning. Uh, I trained mixed martial arts and like five times a week, like Monday to Friday, basically. So not every morning I run. But typically the way I would start my day, I would wake up. I would go for a quick run, you know, 10 minutes. It doesn't take, it doesn't take long in the morning. If you actually go for a run and you're like, you run as hard as you can. Basically it's going to wake you up. You know, get some like adrenaline, like pumping some like healthy cortisol pump, like, you know, just like wake up.
You come back and then the key in my opinion is taking a cold shower in the morning exposure to cold temperature in the morning after you run, you know, and it's only been like 20 minutes after you woke up and you're already awake. You already feel amazing in terms of your body. That's when I would like get a coffee going and I would meditate for 10 minutes. I've been doing this for many years now and it's amazing. It just sets you up on the right frequency in the great mode.
Niles Drasites
Thank you.
Kris Nowak
So you do that and then I would read for a bit and have my coffee. And so now it's been like maybe an hour, hour and a half. And I already done all of these things and I feel amazing. And now I can start working. So in terms of trying to maximize your productivity for after you do your morning routine, have you solid morning routine will set you up for the day? It will actually like set the foundation for the day. And so after, I'm a big proponent of
just silencing your notifications like on the phone. I don't really see a lot of value in most of the notifications we get from the apps. They are disturbing us. They are bringing our attention from whatever we're doing to checking our phone, which is like a quick dopamine hit. So I, for the most part, I have like all notifications silenced. When I work, I typically put my phone on airplane mode and I put it away in the drawer. So I don't even like look at it. And now I can focus on doing like
quality work, like the deep work sort of. There's an amazing book called Deep Work by Carl Newport, I believe. So it's all about structuring your activities. So let's say you do, you probably start with like one deep work session. So 90 minutes or 120 minutes, whatever you like in the morning, then you take a little break and then you do another one like that. And ideally you want to work on the things that you think about first, rather than just like jumping on your computer and like just start working on like random things.
And you know, you do a few of these like deep work sessions in the morning. So you get, you know, when you're most fresh, you get your best work done then. And after that, you can move on to shallow work sort of, so maybe like checking some social media, maybe checking emails, like checking Slack, all these different things that you still have to do, but they don't require so much like, uh, like thinking power. And now we can kind of relax yourself a little bit and you're already done quality work in the morning.
So that's in terms of my morning routine. And I've been, this has been working for me really well. So if you're thinking about improving and optimizing your productivity, it all starts with your morning routine. And also when I go for the rounds in the morning, I also get morning sun exposure. So ideally, yes, like you wanna do this every single day in the morning, but even if you don't do it every single day, your body will still take averages. So, you know, even if every few days you go like in the morning, you get some sunshine.
You get that blue light, natural blue light, the actual healthy one from the sun, then it's gonna wake you up, it's gonna anchor your systems and make you feel great. And in terms of evening routine, I've been really testing this a lot. And I'm a big proponent of testing things because like you mentioned, I was like, what may actually work for you, not necessarily will work for me. So just test different things, see what works for you. And just like if it works for you, don't change it. Just keep on doing it.
And if it doesn't work for you, change it. Just try to find something that works for you. Right. So for me personally, like taking a hot shower in the evening to kind of relax. Definitely helps. Definitely cutting technology at least an hour, ideally two hours before bedtime. No, maybe just have a conversation with your, with your partner, you know, read a book, do some deep stretching, deep breathing, all of these things we mentioned today in the podcast, meditation, these things like
You know, like when you are on your phone or computer, right before you go to sleep, you're pumping cortisol, you're getting stimulated. Like you're not really going to get quality sleep this way. And every now and then, and I actually, it may happen still, you know, because not every night is going to be perfect. But for the most part, optimizing the habits in a way where, you know, like you actually cut the technology off and you wind yourself down and another thing is also like making sure your environment is dark, like, you know, having either.
like blinds on and just turning off the lights and just making sure it's really dark. It's going to really help you. Oh yeah, and then like, so you could have blackout curtains. That's like one thing you could block your lights in your bedroom, or you could have a sleep mask. And so sleeper low cells sleep masks, they're like high quality sleep mask with 3D, like 3D pockets that will actually like.
See you delight around your nose and your eyes so and so miles actually I did send miles so much subtle sleep mask So what is the verdict after a few days of using the sleep mask? What are some things that like you loved about it are there like any things you didn't like so much? I'm just super curious to hear about it
Niles Drasites
I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that. No, it's been great. I love... It's very comfortable. Once you guys get one, please do order it from Kris's site. And uh...
Yeah, I slept great. The thing with me though is sometimes if I'm restless, this thing will come off. I don't know it comes off. I just sleep good and like wake up, I'm like, oh, I can see again. But yeah, if you put this thing on, blocks out everything. And that's what I want. The science shows that too. The only thing for me that I noticed, it's not a bad thing with sleeper load, but it was too tight on my face the first night and I woke up and my ear was kind of sore.
Kris Nowak
Mm-hmm.
Niles Drasites
So I had to loosen it and I think I actually took it off. But after that, I loosened it. So it's an adjustable strap. Make sure you play around with it before you do it and then you can fall asleep better because you don't want to be sore. I mean, you'll also get used to it, but yeah. Phenomenal product. Thanks again, Kris, for the gift.
Kris Nowak
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, you're welcome. And you know, when it comes to, thanks. When it comes to these sleep masks, like it may actually take some time, like getting used to this thing, because if you never really slept with a sleep mask on, and you know, now you actually have like a piece of like, you know, material on your face covering your eyes, like it may take like a little bit of time to get used to it. But ultimately in the longterm, like one of the benefits of wearing a sleep mask, because like this is something you're only going to do when you go to sleep.
Niles Drasites
Highly, highly recommend. Yeah.
Kris Nowak
Right? Maybe when you take a nap or when you go to sleep. So after a while, when you start getting used to it, you know, when you put that sleep mask, your body automatically knows that now it's time to go to sleep, which just builds like a stronger, like healthy sleep habit. And yeah, you may just have to play with like how tight you want it on your face, maybe adjusting the strap, like getting it a little bit looser, a little bit tighter, just finding that sweet spot. But I'm super happy to hear that you like the sleep mask. I put a lot of effort into creating these products and.
I really want to help people sleep better with these products. So yeah, that's awesome, man. Okay. So thank you very much for listening to this podcast,. we're going to wrap it up here. You can reach out to Niles and he will send you the first chapter of his course for free, his sleep optimization course. And honestly, I've done it and it's amazing. Some deep stretching, some deep breathing.
meditation, there's a lot of value in that. So highly encourage you to check it out. It's free, you know, just do these things and reach out to him. Yeah, so where can people find Niles Drasites online? Like what are the social handles you would like people to follow?
Niles Drasites
Thank you.
Yeah, so Instagram is just my first and last name. So N-I-L-E-S-D-R-A-S-I-T-E-S. And then Facebook, same thing, first, last name. You can find me there. And also piggybacking off of you guys reaching out. So if you reach out to me, and Instagram, Facebook, just send a DM and write the word sleep. That way I know, because people are contacting me for other things.
type sleep and then I know and then I'll send you the free link and yeah, let me know what you enjoyed about it and then I'll say, Kris, if they wanna follow you too, they could say whatever you think so you can get back with them and then I can send them the sleep program so we can help you guys.
Kris Nowak
Yeah, that's amazing. Honestly, it's all about like helping people sleep better. It starts with education and understanding and all of this good stuff. So Niles, thank you very much for being a guest on this podcast. I had a lot of fun talking to you. I did learn interesting things from you today. And I'm looking forward to, you know, collaborating with you in the future and keeping in touch with you because it's all about building these powerful relationships that you can rely on.
Niles Drasites
You're welcome, bro. Thanks for having me. Much appreciated.
Kris Nowak
Okay, okay guys that's it for today's episode. I will see you in the next one. Bye for now.
