EP:70 - Entrepreneur Inspiration - Unlocking Wellness: Matt Beck on the Benefits of Flotation Therapy

Matt Beck is the founder of Float8, brings extensive experience from the music industry to the wellness sector. He established Float8 to provide flotation therapy and other wellness modalities, helping clients achieve relaxation and recovery. His journey from managing stress in a fast-paced environment to creating a serene space for others highlights his commitment to mental and physical well-being.

In this episode, we delve into the benefits of flotation therapy with Matt Beck, discussing its impact on stress reduction, pain relief, and mental clarity. Matt shares his personal journey and insights into how floating can improve athletic performance and recovery, making it a valuable tool for both everyday wellness and peak performance.

Listeners interested in stress management, mental health, and physical recovery will find valuable insights in this episode. Matt's expertise in flotation therapy highlights its benefits, including reduced anxiety, improved sleep, and enhanced creativity. Learn how this innovative therapy can support your wellness journey and optimize your performance.

**References:**
- Float8

Listener Questions
1. How can flotation therapy help reduce stress and anxiety?
2. What are the benefits of magnesium absorption through flotation therapy?
3. How can flotation therapy enhance athletic performance and recovery?

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Transcript

0:23

Each float tank has about 10 inches of a 30% Epsom salt solution. We have over 300 functions in our body that require magnesium and most of us are deficient. So just soaking in that solution has a ton of benefit. Everybody, welcome to another episode here on the OWL Podcast. I'm joined by my co-host, Ellie Santra, and our guest today, Matt Beck. He's the CEO and founder of Float8 Foundation Therapy. Every week we come to you with such amazing individuals that are making impact to this world and they are available on the OWL app. We will feature them on our Instagram account at OWL app. And of course, follow them on the platform and get a notification when they make themselves available. We're the only podcast that I'm aware of that takes our guests, features them, and everyone out there can do one-on-one calls with them, which is pretty darn awesome. So Ellie, before we kick things off with today's guests, why don't you share with our audience a little bit about what's happening with Tech Tuesdays on the OWL app, and tell everyone how to get the most value out of Tech Tuesdays so they don't miss out. Yeah, I feel like this is more your expertise. But essentially what is happening is, so we're going to be doing next Tuesday a podcast here in the studio at, I believe it's all day, right? 10 o'clock all the way through 5 o'clock, different tech trailblazers. We're about to announce them later this week. Yeah, so we'll be doing this podcast. So it'll be a great opportunity for anyone that's on the OWL app to call. It's going to be a call-in show. So you can call in live, get on the air. We're not a radio, but basically similar to that, like being on the radio. Y'all are a radio. Come on. I mean, we're cool. We're OWL radio. We got video and audio. Radio's only audio back then. I'll have to get my theme song ready for next week. Can you do that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exciting, because you wrote it and we haven't really announced it. Can we announce it on that morning? Yes, yeah, yeah, let's do it. Let's do it, let's do it. Can you make a music video like MTV, like back in the day? That's a lot. That's a lot. Maybe you could pay me extra for that. We could stream it. Why not? Maybe, maybe, we'll see. Okay. So anyway, yeah, so you can call in, ask any tech questions, really anything to any of these influencers, different people in the industry. And then for anyone that's local in the South Florida area, right after the show, we are going to be doing essentially a happy hour. Yeah, TechHub always used to do a lot of happy hours down here in South Florida and their members really wanted for them to bring it back. Yeah. So 530, tap 42, that is location. Nikki's about to launch the Eventbrite. It's absolutely free to attend as long as you download OwlApp. You can't get in if you don't show OwlApp on your screen. And the purpose is that others after the event can connect with other folks in the tech industry every single Tuesday on the OwlApp, because South Florida TechHub is all about innovation. Yeah. So if we're always just doing the same old tech happy hours, like those get boring after a while, like we want to do something a little bit different and they're partnering with us, which is major, major news on the OwlApp. Just like convenient too, because I feel like you'll be at a networking event and there's so many people you want to talk to rather than wasting time, like let's exchange information, but you can just say, okay, great talking to you. I'll chat with you on the OwlApp later, you know, bye. And that's it. You know that you can always find them on there and you'll be able to find all their social media, their bio, everything about them. So it just saves you time in the moment. So yeah, it's going to be exciting. It's a great new way to get the creepy men away from you, Ellie. You'd be like, oh, I'd love to talk more one-on-one on the OwlApp. Yeah, you can pay me for my time. But you don't have to sit at the bar and getting your ear to it all for 30 minutes. Right now you nicely could say, I have to go, but follow me on Owl and we could chat there. Yeah. Right. And it's a little bit more of a controlled environment, of course. Yeah. Okay. Let's get into our guest today. So Matt, he is the founder of Float8 right here. It's in Delray Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando. And I know that because it's on the back of this card, of course. I did not memorize that, of course. Matt, welcome to the Owl Podcast. Start things off by telling our audience a little bit about your brand. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Yep. Float8, we offer flotation therapy primarily and some other wellness modalities. Floating, more commonly known. Each float tank has about 10 inches of a 30% Epsom salt solution, which we create by putting about a thousand pounds of Epsom salt into the filtered water. We have over 300 functions in our body that require magnesium and most of us are deficient. So just soaking in that solution has a ton of benefit. But the main reason we use it is to help you float effortlessly. So similar to the Dead Sea, we remove the effects of gravity from the body. Spine lengthens, body falls in natural alignment. All your tensions can let go. We spend 20 to 30% of our energy just fighting gravity moment to moment. So while you're out of gravity's effects, you're getting that energy back for deeper healing. Recover quicker from injuries or workouts, fight off illness, inflammation, disease. There's good science coming out that the immune system gets boosted while you're in there. So that's why it's weird to hear your experience. But you just have more energy to put towards it. So you heal quicker. And then the other goal is to reduce external noise, stimulation. You can choose to leave the light and music on, nice meditative music, or you can go with a more sensory deprivation route and turn that all off. That lack of stimulation pretty much induces a meditative state, which is great for reducing stress and anxiety, helps with creativity and focus. And it's an environment of homeostasis for the body. So hormones come to balance, blood pressure normalizes, heart rate, breath rate lower, blood flow increases. So flotation therapy is a great way to take care of yourself. Okay. So I started to play a lot of pickleball. Yeah. And recently, my knees started hurting me a little bit. I'm a little nervous. So I've been icing them a little bit. It's never happened to me in my life. I'm 40 years old. So would this be a great thing for me to, of course, start doing and hopefully prevent injuries and get my knee back into shape? Yeah. Pushed it a little too hard, playing two and a half hours, two days in a row. It's tough being hardcore. I'm not 22 anymore. Yeah. Yeah. We have a lot of athletes. They're some of our more, you know, our achievers, we'll say, are, you know, which the athletes kind of fall in that category, invest themselves working out. Lots of tennis players in Delray, growing number of pickleball players, lots of golfers, crossfitters. Down in Fort Lauderdale, we have a number of the inter-Miami players that come in and float with us. Yeah. So for athletic, you'll feel a lot, you know, eases, aches and pains. Also the focus of it. If you go in there and visualize yourself performing, there's amazing science over you visualize yourself doing things successfully, you're more likely to execute them. So there's that aspect as well. And how often do you recommend someone doing this? Is it once or twice a week? Yeah. It really depends on what your goals are. I've been on a good run. The Delray one's right in my neighborhood. So I can walk there. I've been floating pretty much like every other day for the last couple of months. But weekly, it's a practice. So the more often you do it, the more you're going to get out of it. Just like going to the gym. If you go once in a while, you can get a workout, but you're not going to become fit. Yoga, just like that. So getting into a practice, the routine for you. If you're playing pickleball a few days a week, a weekly, come in once or twice a week. The day after pickle, you're playing, you're, you know, you'll, I'm sure you'll find your body recovering quicker. It's great marketing way, right? Yeah. Over to the Diadem and hand out cards, put them on everyone's cars, right? Yeah. There's a lot of, a lot of folks in their, their forties, fifties and sixties and seventies are playing pickleball. Yeah. Right. And, and there's a lot more injuries these days and a lot of people are sore. So I can see that's a great way to market as they're, as the pickleball economy is scaling, right. You could get in there and it's a great niche to market to. Yeah. We have a referral program. So if you want to send people away, you can earn free floats, but maybe you don't want to tell them what your secret is when you're out there outperforming everybody too. So Tom Brady had one at his house and you can't find any video of him talking about it, you know, because competitive athlete, you know, and keeping it secret. So, yeah. And what's the temperature? Uh, we maintain, it's a neutral external body temperature. So we keep 94 degrees. The goal is, you know, you turn off the lights, you don't see anything, you turn off the music, you don't hear anything. The temperature is your body temperature. So the idea is it's neutral. You, once you kind of adjust to the temp, uh, you, it's kind of weird. You can't, you, you really can't feel where the water is. It just kind of feels like you're floating in space. So the air, the water and you are, or the salt solution technically are all the same temperature. So, so for our audience who hasn't been there, obviously they could check out your social media and see what it really looks like. But for the ones listening on audio, this is a podcast, right? Can you just walk us through it? They get in, you know, to your waiting room and they walk into one of these rooms. Like, what is it like a spa where there's music in the background? Like kind of explain it a little bit. Yeah. You walk in, uh, not really, we don't really go with the spa vibe. We're chill, inspiring. Uh, I'm come from, uh, the music industry previously and are a big, uh, art collection and lots of artists friends. So hip, inspiring art in the space. We usually have some like lo-fi chill music playing in the background, trying to be approachable for everybody from the professional athletes to, you know, the fancy ladies that like to come in and treat themselves. Um, but yep, we have our signature scent, uh, essential oil in the diffusers, uh, the come in greeted by one of our amazing float facilitators. They'll give you a very thorough orientation, uh, give you the rundown of how everything works, give you some tips and tricks, show you to the room. Every room has its own private shower. Uh, so once we show you how everything works, the room's yours, lock the door. Um, then you'll shower beforehand. Being clean, getting in is an important part of keeping it clean. Um, and then, uh, afterwards you're covered in salt. So you shower again after, but. That's what I was going to ask as someone who might be like a little bit of a germaphobe. Um, what's the process for, you know, the germ? Like, how do you guys clean it? Like, what's the science behind? I'm a germaphobe. You went to birding, man. This means to me certain things. Oh, really? It's definitely one of the most asked questions we have. So definitely, uh, that level, you know, mentioned similar to the dead sea and mineral content. So dead, nothing can survive in the solution. Uh, then it runs through in between each floater. It runs through a filtration system enough to pass all the solution through the filter, at least three times meets the strictest of health code standards. Uh, we use a combination of UV light and ozone as the primary sanitizers. And aside from that, the only other thing in the solution is, um, about a hundred parts per million of hydrogen peroxide, which is a very small amount. And that's just an additional oxidizer. And I could get into the science of, oh, it's hydroxyl radicals. And, uh, it's a very pure way, uh, much cleaner and healthier than using chlorine or something like that. And then we obviously clean all the touch points in between every floater we go in. And, you know, there's a 30 minutes between each floater. It gives us plenty of time to get in there and clean everything. So very clean environment. How you came up with this concept, right? Like, when did it begin? Right. And, and where were you, like, where was your mind going? Like, did you see it in a different country? And you're like, I got to bring this back to the States. Yeah. Uh, I heard on a, you know, a podcast pretty much is where I first heard about it. Um, Joe Rogan was telling people it's the most powerful tool for calming the mind. I formerly was in the music industry, uh, very stressful, fast paced, unhealthy environment, a lot of it. And, uh, I just, between that and family and life stuff happening as it does for us, I was dealing with a lot of stresses and not really processing them. And I was just found myself in a very unhealthy level of stress and anxiety. I was struggling to sleep. I was not performing at a level I was proud of and, uh, struggling focusing. And I was trying to meditate and I didn't really know what meditating was. I was sitting there. I'm like, is this meditating? I don't know. Um, and then I heard, you know, and a growing number of people, Tim Ferriss talking about it, uh, Mitch Rogan, and I Googled it and there happened to be a flow tank in Delray beach right down the street from where I was living. So I went in and tried it. Um, my first float, uh, was challenging. I was, I took a stressful phone call on the way to my first float. Uh, it was, uh, I got approved for something with way under budget and last second for a project I was working on. So I went in there and I was kind of bouncing off the walls and it was, you know, um, you know, learned a lot that I came out feeling very unprepared for that first float. So I downloaded a meditation app and did a few meditations and kind of learned a little bit more when in a second time, cause I was so determined to find relief. Second time was better. Um, and then, uh, enough that I wanted to give it a third try. And that third time is really where I found, um, this overwhelming feeling of like, this is how I'm supposed to feel. I forgot what it was like to feel relaxed and not be redlined. Um, I found, you know, in my experience, uh, you get a little stress, a little anxiety and you kind of get used to it and then you get a little bit more and you get used to that and you get a little bit more and more and more, and then you don't realize it, but you're, you know, for me, I was fried and just, uh, struggling and it really showed me the way I could be. So I made it a regular thing. Um, and then they ended up closing. I was a little spa. They just had one tank at the back. It wasn't their primary business, but, um, and then I was driving up to North Palm beach was the next closest tank. And that was becoming more difficult to do on a regular basis. And I thought I wanted to own a music venue. And I was kind of waking up between, uh, my floats and the other things I was doing, start feeling better that I didn't really want to get in the business of getting people drunk and, you know, the fast paced late nights, the music industry. And I realized that, you know, my community could probably use, uh, more flotation therapy options. And I mean, every bar and restaurants, a music venue. So it's like, how much competition can you ask for? And that nobody else's was still, there's only a couple other places, uh, doing it around South Florida. We're still primarily the main business doing it. So I saw the opportunity. I started doing research. I found that there was a float conference. And what year was this? So my first float was October, 2013, 2015, end of 2014, early 2015 is when I started thinking about it as a business opportunity. I attended the float conference out in Portland, Oregon for the first time in August of 2015. I've been there every year since. And the organizers of that time of the conference also did apprenticeships at their center. So I signed up for, they had an apprenticeship right after the conference. So I did like a week between the conference and their apprenticeship kind of before I had committed to it to do some research and kind of find out about it. I set some goals and, uh, came back meeting and exceeding all the goals I had set and really inspired and, uh, yeah, decided to kind of pivot in that direction. Of course, in the music industry, I was producing a festival that stuff's like a, you know, at least a 12 month timeline. I couldn't just stop what I was doing. So there was still, I had to see some things through, but in April of we produced the last year of my music festival in March of 2016, April of 2016, I found the location of our first float center and, uh, kind of shifted at that point. Is there major competitors out there that have, that have done this and then franchised it? Cause I see like stretch zones, right? I see body twenties, right? Once a concept like this starts making sense before you know it, like a private equity company comes in, backs it up or someone raised capital or just one location is very profitable and then they could franchise it. And you saw this with forever young, right? For every young was on the alpacas and they have 130 locations, but it happened so rapidly. So I would like three, four when they were on our show in 2019. And then before you know it, it's just like, you know, the franchise model helped them. Yeah. It's been impressive watching them grow. So I see this concept very similar to like a stretch zone, right? Or like them. So, uh, is there a big competitor doing this? Yeah, there is one established franchise out there and there's one or two more coming. Uh, that have started. I think one of the big hurdles is a stretch zone. You need a table and some people where, uh, salt proofing and soundproofing and waterproofing the rooms. There's a bit more of an upfront investment in it. Um, uh, we figured it out now that, you know, I've just built my third and I feel like we're really at where I would do anywhere at this point. Uh, really proud, you know, we made a big jump from one to two and then, you know, we probably went from 70% of what it was to 90%. Now we're at like 98% of what I would do at every location. So we're looking for ways to scale. And, uh, I think there is opportunity there, but it is again, a big upfront cost to buy the machines and, uh, do the proper build out. What is your niche market? Right. I see the pricing here, right? It says $80 for a 60 minute float, right? And then you have different packages, like four floats for $200, right? It doesn't seem like your typical 21 year old, right? Graduating college. Like this is the market. They're not as sore as often. They don't care. Yeah. I drink and all night long, wake up and they're hung. Their hangover has gone in an hour where we're people like you and I, you're right. Yeah. We have kids. And then all of a sudden, like we can't do that. Like we're sore, like our head hurts. Yeah. But we can't afford these prices. Right. And then people in their 60s, 70s, you know, of course they have a lot of money, right? They, they work their whole lives. They put a lot of retirement accounts and they save up and they can afford these things and they really care more about their body. So have you found like a, a target market that really works? Yeah. Again, the two big customers we're going after, you know, not going after, but looking to support that we find that get the most out of floating is our achievers I mentioned before. And that's our entrepreneurs, business owners, lawyers, doctors, athletes, people who are investing themselves in a lot of way and really want to perform at their best or highly invested in what they're doing. So peak performance, pile hackers, stuff like that. And then the other people were really trying to help are the, you know, medically, you know, medically challenged people with chronic pain, sleep disorders, anxiety disorders that are trying to either avoid or wean themselves off of medications, avoid surgery and stuff like that. So it's kind of the balance of, you know, feeling better and then performing at your best are kind of the two. I mean, it's, it's good for everybody, but you know, you can't market it. If you market to everybody, you don't want to anybody. So of course we got, you want to have the right margins. Yeah. You know, of course you can say, okay, we get to drop the price and try to hit every target possible, like floats at $30. Right. But then, you know, there's not a margin likely. And then the cost of the equipment, the wear and tear. So completely understand where you're coming from. Ellie, you know, you're big into this space, right? I see you going to Delray often, right? Our past guests always does that event in Delray in the market. And what's it called? Cocoa market. Cocoa market. And you do a lot with meditation. So what are your thoughts about? So, well, first I just wanted to ask you, how many tanks do you have per location? Each of our locations has four float tanks. So enough for a small group to come in and all have their own, you know, have their own room. In Delray, we have two, Fort Lauderdale has one. And one of our Orlando locations has one tank that is large enough for tandem floats. So you can have two people in there as well. So whether it's, you know, it's tandem floats. It's not definitely not always couples. We've had mothers and children. We've had twin sisters, which I think is pretty cool. It's like going back into the womb together. That float together. What's that movie with, like, Cocoon? That's what I hear a lot. Sky, right? Oh, right. Yeah. And they could see the future. Yeah. Like that. So, no, I've done it. So I'm intrigued because I've done it before. This was like back in 2016. It was at, I don't know if you've heard of the Lodge at Woodlock at all. It's in Pennsylvania. So it's like a basically like a whole spa retreat center. And they, you know, they do cooking classes, workout classes, massage, like all the treatments. And they had one there. And I'd never heard of it because this was, yeah, back in 2016. And right when I was really, really like just getting into meditation, like super into it, I was doing like 20 minutes twice a day, every day. And I tried it. And I guess like for someone that was meditating so much, I was like, this doesn't really feel like I wasn't that into it. Like, it just didn't feel necessary. I was like, I don't need this. I didn't feel like my body was really that great afterwards. But who knows like what was in their pool? You know, I feel like every center is different. So you just never know like, and they only had one tank. It wasn't like they specialized in it. It was just like a spa that had one. So I would definitely, and then I got the flu afterwards. So maybe I was just off that whole, the whole day, like literally 24 hours later. So I would definitely want to try it again. I think there's a lot of potential even for like, like making even more customized experiences, like not just, you know, meditation, but if people kind of have like their favorite music and they want to like, I don't know if you guys do that already, but like, it doesn't have to be soothing, but just like a theme or like affirmations or something. Yeah. All of our tanks will play. So we've got a choice, you know, a selection of different meditative tracks, but you can also plug in your own phone and listen to anything you'd like. If you want to listen to something that you bring in or you're a musician, you want to listen to your, you have ear fatigue in the studio, you want to listen to your undistracted recordings you're working on might be a great place to do that. I have an idea of like, I've always kind of in the back of my mind, like a record, you know, listening party for a new release or something like that. But that's cool. Yeah. The first time I did yoga, I got the worst flu I've ever had, like the day after. And I didn't do yoga for a long time after that. Like it was definitely the yoga. And now I do yoga all the time. Yeah, that's why I'm like, I'm willing to, I'm ready to try it again. My friend and I, my friend actually had heard of you guys and he has like a free voucher and we've been talking about going and I was like, oh my gosh, I'm having like the founder on the podcast today. So we, I think him and I will definitely like come and try it. And he's, he teaches yoga as well. So like we're both into that stuff, but the benefits, I always take baths with, you know, Epsom salt. So I feel like the benefits would probably be great. Yeah. A couple of cups in your, people are like, well, I do that at home. What's the difference? And you put a couple of cups in your bathtub and it feels great. But we're talking like a thousand pounds goes in the tank. Yeah. You bring up a good point as well that I kind of circle back to is I said, like my third float, we do find like the first time you go to the gym, kind of just learn your way around. You know, you got to learn how they want you to treat the equipment and clean and where the locker room is. You know, you're not getting your crushing workout the first time you walk through a gym or a new yoga studio or something. We do an intro three pack. We do buy two, get one free. So we really, you know, the, what we have found is that people who float like three times within 30 days really realize the potential of the experience, you know, cause the first time I try to guard expectations because the first time you don't know, it's, you think you're going to, you may freak out or what's it going to be like, it's going to be this. We have a lot of people come out from their first float saying, I can't wait for my next one. Cause now I know, now I know I'm not going to freak out. Now I know the process. You know, there's different places you can put your arms that affect how you float and your comfort. So it's also just walking to the front doors. You know, people are nervous to walk into a spa. People are nervous to walk into a gym. All by yourself. Sometimes I'm like, I'm going to the gym for the first time, right? My first time at gravity oxygen fitness, right? I was joining a group. I'm like, open the door and like, just ask the pricing and be like, okay, I want to become a member. Right? So there, there is this like fear of just like that first time doing something that you've never done before. Unless you do it with someone, of course, sometimes that's weird. Cause like when you're with a group and you're like, Hey, you know, it's team day, we're all going to float eight. Right. And how cool is that as a team experience where like you have energy, you're walking through the front doors, you know, or you're just with a group of friends, of course, right. Then it's a little easier because that, that fear is gone. Yeah. Yeah. We have a lot of people that come in with a friend or a group for the first time, but I also talk to people that are like, Oh, I've been trying to get my, I really want to do it, but my friend just won't do it. You know? I'm like, well, you could just do it. We're going to take care of you. It's going to be good. So, you know, if you're feeling, you want to do it, you know, and I encourage people to stop by like without an appointment, just stop by. We, you know, we're, we may or may not have a tank available at the moment to show you, but we can definitely show you around the space and make it a little less intimidating. If you're driving by one of our locations, just stop by and stick your head and say, hi. It's, we've got a library in each place. We've got a bookshelf full of all kinds of really cool books. Lots of our floaters have donated books. I've been collecting books my whole life. So, you know, it's, you can just hang out on our couch. I don't even care. So here it is. So we're going to look at someone floating. You guys could see there, there's a big tank. Let's play a video. That's pretty cool. Good video, by the way, Matt. Yeah, thanks. Okay. No one's getting the audio, but everyone gets, gets an idea. Oh, yeah. Nice, beautiful tank. You get to relax and there's the vibe from the outside in. Oh, cool. You can see. That's our Fort Lauderdale location. Walking down the hallway, you can see some of our featured artists. Yeah. That's one of our cabins. Oh, that's cool. So it's like when you're, you're on a boat, you can get in. Nice. Cabins, seven and a half foot ceiling, eight and a half feet long. Our regular cabins, four feet wide, the extra large cabin, six feet wide. It's like a big walk-in closet. People are like, oh, another big question along with the sanitation is claustrophobia. You're in total control. You get in and out whenever you want. You can open the door, leave it open. And there she is. She's floating. That is awesome. So everybody listening, if you have questions, you want to connect with them, you want to collaborate with them, of course. Call them on OWL 101, right? Ask them anything on your mind when it comes to floating. Well, that's pretty cool. I think it's time to call some people on OWL. Bring them into the show. What do you think, Ellie? Yeah, people would want to know more about this process for sure. Okay. So what we're going to do is we're going to refresh the home screen of the OWL app right here. And before we do that, I'm going to give everybody out there in the audience a quick tip. What I do every week is I head over to the new OWL category. New OWLs will only show 10 here. I'll hit view more. And then I'll go ahead and hit the filter button right here. And I'll put calls taken low to high. These are people who have joined OWL in the last 30 days. The little new symbol next to their name. But it will show if you're following them or not. So you can see I follow all these people. So when you don't follow them, it looks like this. It's grayed out, right? So all you have to do is go in here, follow Matt. And pretty much what that means is next time Matt makes himself available, you'll get a notification. And you'll get that first opportunity to give him a ring on the OWL app. So if we find Matt here. Where are you, Matt? It should be somewhere. There you are. Oh, and you took two calls. Good job. He took two calls. But we could see here, like followers. There's only four people that have that chance to really get in touch with Matt quickly. And they're right here. Avram, Brian, Trisha, and me, right? Because we're the only ones following them. And those are the people that will get a nice notification alert when he makes himself available, when he sets that little timer in the app. So they have the first chance to call Matt a dollar. And all new experts have to get to 10 calls before they could alter their price. So you get that chance to call Matt a buck. Where do you get a chance to call business owners that we have on the OWL podcast? Week in and week out for a buck, right? It's pretty darn cool. And everyone out there is trying to form relationships for their business and collaborate. That's how businesses scale, right? Of course, word of mouth, but really connecting and forming awesome relationships. And Matt was on the app, and we could see right here. There you go. Avram, right? He gave him a ring, right? But he had that chance because he got that notification. And then 16 hours ago, Jimmy, which is awesome. That's our guest from last week. Yeah, I'm a big fan of his local celebrity chef. And I never got a chance to chat with him. So I saw him go live. And then I listened to his podcast. And you guys challenged him to go live yesterday. So he was live. I'll vouch for him. I don't know if it was the whole three hours that he promised, but he took it easy. Oh, he did. He got four calls. Look, he did it. And one of my friends, too, was watching. And she was like, oh, his food is amazing. Like the restaurant. I don't know. I'm sure you've been to his restaurant. And she was like, it's incredible. So I can't wait to go. Yeah, it's a little off the beaten path. It's chill. It's a great restaurant. It's one of my favorites. Nice. Okay, well. We know who each other are, but we had never really chat. So it was a really good opportunity. It was a good 10 minutes on the phone. I was at the dog park with my dog, throwing the ball. And I got notified he went live. Oh, nice. Like, you know what? That's how it works. I got a call. And then I made a call. So I wanted to try it out before coming in. Oh, look. And we have an artist. This person's new. So have you spoken to her? No. I have not. I didn't even know. Yeah, I was like, who's this? Okay, let's give her a ring. This is her background. Let's see. She's an artist. And you like artists. And maybe, who knows? Maybe you talk to her. You see her art. You buy one. And you put it in the next float location. You never know. And actually, the big franchise I was mentioning started in Scottsdale, Arizona. So I bet she's heard of Flotation Therapy. Let's give it. That makes sense. Arizona is a very wellness-y place. Let's bring her into the show. Is everyone listening? There she is. Hello, Debbie. Hi. Hey, this is Jason Hill, the founder of Owl. How's everything going? Hi, Jason. Everything's going good. How about you? Going good. Your image is up on the big TV, the big 86-inch TV here. So after this, you could get a recording of it as well. Awesome. Thank you. So we were just checking out your profile. But real quickly, we're going to have Matt tell you a little bit about Float8. Well, Matt, tell Danny a little bit about your brand. And then, Danny, if it's cool, ask him a question or two. Hey, Danny. Matt here. Are you familiar with flotation therapy, float tanks? I, you know, just a tiny bit. I'd love to hear what you do. I was going to say, I see Scottsdale, Arizona on your profile. So I know there's a couple float tanks near you. If you ever want to check it out, you can just put it in the old search machine. But each float tank has 10 inches of a 30% Epsom salt solution. So you get all the benefits of that magnesium. And it helps you float effortlessly, getting you out of gravity. And then the other goal is to reduce external stimulation, which helps induce a meditative state. And I see you're a professional artist. And you probably like to get creative. We find a lot of our artists, floaters really come out inspired and maybe come to us when they're having, you know, writer's block or looking for inspiration. And our location, to tell you a little bit about Float8, we really feature and lean into local art and local regional art, have great relationships with a lot of artists. And we do shows and rotate through different art a few times a year. So, yeah, I don't know, do you have any questions? It does sound really, really cool. And I can definitely see where just having the isolation from, you know, sounds and noise of the world would definitely get you more into that creative state. Tell me some more of the benefits, kind of like elaborate a little bit more with, you mentioned the minerals or the Epsom salt or whatever. So tell me some more of the benefits of that side of it. Yeah, well, the magnesium, we have over 300 functions that require, and most of us are deficient. So a lot of that's enzymatic functions of the body, but the six real core benefits that we focus on are reducing stress and anxiety, relieving chronic pain, aches and pains, improving sleep, increasing focus and creativity, aiding athletic performance and recovery and deepening meditation. Are any of those things benefits that you think you could enjoy? Oh, for sure. So when someone uses the tank, do they notice changes and improvements right away? Or is it something where it takes multiple visits? What kind of feedback do you get? Yeah, we definitely have people that come out from their first float, like, wow, that was amazing. I feel great. My first float was a little more challenging. I was telling the story a little bit earlier, but it's a practice. It's like doing yoga or going to the gym. You're going to get more out of it the more regular you do it. But we do have people that just come in once in a while, just get away, a break. Or as a creative, maybe you're just at a spot where you just need to step away from the art you're creating in that moment and reset. I know I work with musicians a lot, and then you get ear fatigue in the studio. And it's just like, you got to walk away and get out of the studio at a certain point. And we have a lot of the musicians come in, and it just kind of gives them a reset on their sensories. So to think about it, we have a lot of copywriters and advertisers, marketers that come in for creative inspiration, think about things we're working on. Tell us a little bit about what you do, Danny. I mean, I know you're an artist, but what kind of art? Yeah, we'd love to hear. Thank you. I am a painter. I work mostly in oils, but I also work in some acrylics. Right now, I'm working on kind of a surreal type collection where I'm combining different things, and I like to juxtapose different ideas. So I like history a lot. So right now, I did a horse, and out of the horse, like a Western town is actually part of the horse's body, and it's kind of growing from his body. So I feel like you're kind of seeing the world through the horse's eyes. And I just like comparing a lot of different things and looking at the world differently. So having a lot of fun with my art right now, and I've done a lot of abstract work and stuff like that as well. Nice. It sounds really interesting. Do you put your pieces like on your Instagram and stuff for people to see, or where can I find those? I am on social media. You can find me under Danny Abbott or Danny Abbott Fine Art. I'm on all the major, you know, all the basic go-to platforms. And then I also have a website, dannyabbottfineart.com. So people can see my work on there as well. Awesome. And we have it up on the TV. Look at this. So we're putting it. We see the horse. Look at that. Oh my God. That is amazing. That's really cool. I love it. Are you, have you been doing art your whole life? Or is this like, yeah. As like, as an amateur, as a kid, I knew I wanted to be an artist, but then I took the really, you know, like the long road. I, wife, mom, kids, homeschooled my kids. I just, I kept putting art like on the back burner. Yes. And yeah. And then I finally got to a chapter where I was like, this is, this is the chapter that's going to be about me. So I went professionally 20, 2018 was when I actually stepped in the ring and then we had, you know, COVID and things came along. But yeah. I love your art. It's amazing. I'm a musician, but I can't do art at all. So I'm always like amazed. Like, wow. What do you play? I sing and play piano. So I write music. I write all types of pop to meditation music. I'm about to write the owl theme song for our podcast. So I can't wait to hear what you make up. Yeah. So yeah, we're, I haven't seen you on the app before, so we're happy to have you. Thank you. Yeah. I'm brand new, brand new to the app. I, I'm, I'm kind of excited about this potential. I think this app is really creative, really refreshing since most people don't, we don't connect on a more real level anymore. Everything seems very superficial. Yeah. And hearing, hearing someone's voice, you know, and having a live conversation with somebody is just, it's just the next level. So I'm very excited to see what this app does and all the great people that I'll get to meet along the way. Yay. Awesome. Well, thank you for coming on the owl podcast, even though you didn't know it. I'm surprised. I'm surprised. Yeah. Thanks Jason. Thanks for keeping me on my toes. Absolutely. I'll give you a ring one of these days and we'll have a one-on-one of course. Okay. Sounds fantastic. Later. Thanks guys. Peace. Bye. Bye-bye. Okay. She's already taken like seven calls and she's brand new. That's cool. Okay. Great call. And like that, we did an owl call. Okay. Should we get one more person to call? I guess so. See if we have anyone local. Yeah. Let's get someone from Delray. Does Lynn live in Delray? Yeah. Lynn is in Pompano Beach. Oh, this would be good too because she does like end of life, like cremation. Before we call her right here, she's a best-selling author, speaker, vocalist, performer, health advocate. Okay. End of life, pre-planning, cremation. Look at that. She was in the podcast studio. I feel like that would be good for people to float like as like a grief sort of therapy. That's a big part of why I started floating. So yeah, maybe she'll try and then she can join the referral program. You never know if she answers. Hopefully she does. She's live. Okay. We are giving Lynn a call and there she is. Hello. Hey, Lynn. It's Jason Hill. You're live on the owl podcast. Oh, hi, Jason. Nice to hear from you. Likewise. Likewise. You were, you were in this seat just a couple of weeks ago. We have Matt Beck here in the studio. He is the owner of, now I'm going to say it wrong, but Flowtate. Flowtate. It's Ellie here too. Hi. Ellie's here too. Lynn, how's it going? We wanted to call someone local that could try his services. So welcome to the owl podcast. How's it going? It's going great so far. I'm hearing from such wonderful people from all ends of the spectrum. It's just such a great app. I really am enjoying it very much. So helpful. Okay. So have you ever been in a float tank? Is that the way to say it, I guess? Yes. Yes. I love those float tanks. I actually have been in one several times near close to where I live in in Pompano Beach. And unfortunately, the one I was going to had closed down. But I think the benefits of that are amazing. Where's this one at? Yeah. That was our location in Deerfield Beach. That was our first location. We said thank you Deerfield Beach there because- I was hoping it was someone else. Our first location, two weeks after the grand opening party of our new Delray Beach location, we closed our first. But in Pompano, the closest one would be with Fort Lauderdale. We have one on Northeast 13th Street. So just north of Sunrise between Andrews and Federal. Oh, good to know that. Okay. Okay. Because I know I have a couple of- I had bought like a little package. So I think I have a few more left. So I will venture down there. That's awesome to know. Yeah. Come use them. And if they're expiring or anything, give us a call. We're happy to extend them for you. Are you based in Pompano or where are you based? Yes. I'm based in Pompano. Okay. Or if you happen to be in Delray, you know, you come here a lot. They have a location here too. So- Oh, for sure. I would love that. I would love that. That's more often at the Delray location. Yeah. The health benefits of those float tanks are incredible. Go ahead. Oh, no. I was just wondering if like, did you experience like benefits right away, like on your first try? Or did you have to go a couple of times to notice effects from it? No, I kind of felt it the first time. I mean, it definitely for one thing, it really just relaxes your whole body from head to toe. Yeah. That's so healing. And for me, it's kind of deeply meditative as well. I meditate on a daily basis. But in doing that, it just goes hand in hand with the whole session that you're in there. And you're just like in another world floating. That's what it is. You let go of all your worries and concerns and turn off your mind when you're in there. I'm in there right after the show. I know. I'm like, I'm cold. I'm cold. Married, two kids, two podcasts. I'm ready. A mobile app. What are the chances that she's like already a member? More ups and downs than anything. I'm a financial advisor. I have a lot of clients that call me in panic mode also in the market. I need one of these in my front office of this owl nest over here. Lynn, tell us a little bit more about what you do in terms of your career, grief, grief stuff, all that. Oh, yeah. For 17 years now, I can't believe how long I'm in this, but I am a licensed pre-arrangement advisor for families. I have the sensitive conversation with them to assist their loved ones in pre-planning for future cremation arrangements. Sometimes it's a really hard discussion to have with your family. That's what I've been doing to help families. I actually created a guide, a workbook guide. During the pandemic, I took all that time to create this workbook pre-planning book guide called You're Good to Go. Aw, that's cute. Yeah. The name of that's kind of funny because I was helping some clients when we finished the paperwork. It just rolled out of my mouth. I was like, you guys, I said, okay, you guys, you're good to go. Not meaning that. Oh, it's funny. That's good to go to heaven now. I'm like, oh my God, that's such a great book name. That's what I did. Anyway, it's on my little app there, my name. I posted the name, You're Good to Go. It's on Amazon, but yeah, that's a good part of all that to help people. Yeah, I help the whole state of Florida. Well, now you can refer them to the Floatate too because he has a referral program. If you love it so much, I feel like it's like, and also to de-stress from this moment. You can go to Floatate. Here's a free session afterwards. Yeah, yeah, exactly. You have any questions for me as the owner of Floatate? You've come in a few times. It's great. You could have made a better call here because I've been saying how good it is. So it's good to get an outside perspective to chime in. Absolutely. Absolutely. I would be happy to anyone I speak to recommend your services. It's wonderful. It's just for mind, body, spirit. We all need it. Like everyone's stressed out in this world today. We all need to go to the float tank. We all need to experience a session and many more, not just one. Yeah. Okay. Well, Lynn, thank you for joining us on the OWL podcast. We'll be in touch a little later after the show. And if you want to catch her clip, just head over to at OWL app on YouTube. And of course, you could just record that little segment. And then you have your own clip where you put you up on the television during the episode. Okay. Oh, that's great, Jason. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Take care. You too. Thank you. Take care. All right. Bye all. That was awesome. See that? Wow. She's already. She's a customer, but not a missing customer, right? She has some certificates. She hasn't used them. And we want to get her in because as a business owner, you don't want to see that. You don't want to see someone that has them and then doesn't know where the other locations are. She's so busy and then she just forgets. But someone like that, you get right back in. And then, you know, she becomes a regular customer again. Yeah. We're working hard to re-engage those deer field floaters because let them know that they do have other options. Yeah. It was an emotional let go of the first location. But, you know, I didn't know what I was doing when I built that location. So it just wasn't really up to brand standard anymore. We're approaching the end of our lease. There was a number of some external things that were making it a little bit more difficult to operate at the level of service that we wanted to. So we just decided, you know, in growing businesses, scaling business, sometimes you got to prune the hedge a bit to put the energy towards the healthier branches. So you said you have Delray and Fort Lauderdale, right? Yeah. Do you have a third? You don't have a third one? We have a third and a fourth. We built Deerfield, Fort Lauderdale. Deerfield opened in 2017. Fort Lauderdale opened in October 2020, which was a really exciting managing construction project in the middle of COVID. Then Delray, we started floating people last October. Our grand opening party was this past February. I also acquired two existing locations up in Orlando. Oh, Orlando. Yeah, in Orlando in June of 2022. One of them was open before my first location. When I started thinking about getting in the business, I was driving by them on the way to a lot, you know, I was traveling a lot with the band and to the music festival I was producing up in North Florida. So we'd pass by a lot. So me and the yoga program director for my festival were riding up together and like, hey, you want to stop and float? And he's like, yeah, let's do it. So I became friends with the owner of that location. They actually helped mentor me a bit through the health department and pick out my equipment early on. They lost momentum during COVID. They were a little bit older. They were looking to relocate. They now live up in Virginia. And they reached out and said, hey, we're looking to move on and you'd be our first choice to take over our locations. So we, you know, work that out. And they actually had three. We decided not to move forward with one of them and kept two of them. And so, yeah, we've been operating those for just two years now. Nice. And I put up on the television so everyone could see it right here. There are all the locations. Here's the website, of course. You can see all these amazing reviews from all the different locations. So, of course, go check it out. See the benefits for yourself. Everything is on social media, of course. And now let's get into Ellie's favorite part of the show. Now, Matt knows already because he watched last week's episode, what we do here at the end. Most of our guests never watch an episode. So they don't know what's to come. We don't tell people. We don't know if we watch the full episode. You've got to make it to the end. Yeah, you have to make it to the end. A lot of people watch like seven, eight minutes of a podcast and then they're like, next. I'm not much of a gambler, but here we go. He knows. He knows. Yeah. So you want to think of it this time? Okay. So this doesn't shut off. I'll leave this on here. Oh, actually, I have an idea. This came to me. Okay. I think that I want it to be something where like someone on like a contest almost where someone on OWL can win a free float. Maybe it has to do with tech. Oh, Tech Tuesday. We can make an announcement. A lot of times at networking events, they give out like raffles and stuff like that. So maybe it could be a raffle at the event and like we promote you or maybe it could just be something like with everyone that I don't know. I don't know exactly what it is yet. I just kind of want to lose in a way. Yeah, I was going to say, I'm happy. Anybody listening out there, if you have a charity or an event going on, we're always happy to support. Well, how about like if you win, then you like participate in the event. There will be a lot of people there. I don't know exactly what, but just some sort of raffle, some sort of contest where then all these people bring brand awareness to you essentially and giving away one free float probably isn't going to hurt business that much. No, happy to do it. So yeah, I think we should do that. If you, I would say you've already taken calls on the app. So is there something else we could, we want him to do? I'm just putting the pressure on you. Maybe like, maybe it's getting downloads. So maybe it's having a lot of stuff getting like, yeah, your staff, maybe like five downloads in the next week. Yes, and you'll have a referral code and you have a referral code inside the app. Everybody does. So once you go into the app like this, you go, oh, you know, here's my mind's hoot hoot, you know, go to the home screen right there. You hit the menu, hit copy, text it to people right when they sign up. It says, you know, were you referred to us? You have the referral code, you get $10, they get $10. So they're winners, you're winners. By the time you're done here, you're going to get an extra $50 spent on the Owl app to make other calls. So I think that's a good bet. He's around a lot of his staff and he could just say, hey, you know, you have to, you know, do me a favor here, download Owl, you know, but also because you mean it, you like it, right? It's a great thing for people to connect with other professionals. They could even promote Floatate on the app, like just to more people, you make the staff get in there and. Yeah, Tech Tuesdays is next week. Oh, I know what we could do. Yeah, he's got to refer the five people, but he's going to actually get them to actually call some people on Tech Tuesdays because there's going to be all these people in our studio that day and they're taking calls and they're all in South Florida. How about that? There's actually a home run for you because you could actually say, hey, next Tuesday specifically. No, no, no, wait, wait, wait. Okay, so if he wins, okay, if he wins, he gets to be like featured, whatever part of the event. If we win, then, then we have, then those people have to, he has to get people to make calls, right? I feel like that makes sense or no, because what do we get if we win? I don't know what's going on here. It's a win, win. Actually, no, if we win, we got free flow. How about that? If we win, then the three of us get a flow. Team, if you don't, if you don't get the downloads. Three, what is it? 80 minutes or 60 minutes? 60 minutes, our base. So if you don't get the downloads, then the three of us will get a free flow. Us two. Is that worth? Okay. We get a free flow. If you don't get five downloads. Kind of following. We'll have to draw up the black way. So five downloads. Start over. Start over. Start over. Ready? I think five downloads is a good challenge for me to get. I've got some people in mind, staff or otherwise. I'm active in the local entrepreneur community, and I'm already thinking of some people that I think would benefit from it. I do really like it. You're putting that in my mouth a little bit. You say that, but I have taken a couple of calls. I'm not a big networker. I don't love walking to a room. DNI scares me. I'm more behind the scenes. I'd send my staff to those kind of things, but I am very active in the entrepreneur and other business owners and other people doing it. I come from the music industry, which is very cutthroat. It's very nice to be in the float industry that's very supportive. Even local South Florida entrepreneur, this is a healthy way to engage in conversation and put yourself out there with some boundaries and not having to be face to face. You can be in your pajamas. I don't mind face to face, but being sold stuff. I'm not going to say no. People are like, oh, do you need cleaning supplies? I'm like, you know, whatever. Sure. There's all kinds of stuff, but having engaging conversations with other people who are also trying to make cool stuff happen. I love that. I think it's the collaborations. We get so many people that together after little conversations end up collaborating from another state, whatever. That, I think, is one of the benefits. Just to be clear, the bet will be you have to get five downloads. If you do that, then you will, in some capacity, be a part of our Tech Tuesday. If you do not get those five downloads, then we, the three of us, will get free flip. One free flip. That sounds good. And it's got to be by Monday because Tech Tuesday is next Tuesday. Yes. Sounds good. It is a deal. Handshakes, lock it in. Well, Matt, thank you for joining us here on the OWL Podcast. Everyone tuning in. We'll be back next Wednesday right around four or five o'clock-ish with our next guest. And of course, reach out to Matt on the OWL app. He will make himself available in the next seven days. And get your chance to chat with him one-on-one and build an opportunity, build a connection. Take care, everybody. Yep. Thanks, everybody. Post-production for the OWL Podcast is done with care by Ocean Tree Creative.