The start-up with a focus on personal development: Breathe Union

Louise Lyons-Appiah graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2022 with a degree in Political Science with History and has recently joined the UoB Elevate start-up incubator programme.

She is co-founder of start-up business Breathe Union - a sub-brand within the Masteri Group, which provides emotional intelligence (EQ), psycho-social skills and personal development to young aspirational leaders and changemakers. The business was started whilst she was at university and created together with her brother (and co-founder) Jeremy Lyons.

Louise: Its creation has stemmed from the knowledge that we are in a mental health crisis with many young people like myself not understanding themselves and each other causing a breakdown of society. 

It has developed from the original iteration ‘Breatheuni’ which has been a collection of student groups who have supported each other through raising awareness on mental health, personal development and equality, diversity and inclusion.

This has led to a wide range of opportunities for us such as partnerships with Beyond, Ollie Foundation and discussions with well known organisations like Universites UK, Clifford Chance and Targetjobs.

Breathe Union are currently working with UK accommodation providers Student
Roost. Working together, they will be running a series of programmes (along with another organisation Championing Youth Minds) with a focus on wellbeing and mental health within student accommodation, through Q and A sessions. 

Breathe Union also work closely with partners across the University of Birmingham. In early October, they ran a COSS Essentials event for university staff highlighting the existing personal and professional development systems within the university and affiliated student union - and how pastoral staff can better facilitate student empowerment, engagement and education through collaboration, coaching and community.

We have experience working in the following areas:

Volunteering: Breathe Union has run a schools workshop in partnership with University of Birmingham School and a volunteer placement scheme with ABL Health.

Personal Development: We coach and deliver the Masteri Facilitation Programme to give facilitators a peer-to-peer support network, a method for conducting personal development through experiential learning and develop coach like qualities to help aide career and leadership progression.

Collaboration: We have a philosophy of collaboration; we have impacted more students then we could've dreamed of, helping over 200 students to-date across universities and secondary schools.

Being part of the UoB Elevate programme:

Having researched some of the current cohorts of students in the incubator, it seems to have really helped their business thrive. 

For me I am always more productive when I am in a working environment where I feel challenged and focused, surrounded by others with the same goal driven mindset. I believe the incubator could really help us to expand our network.

We hope to make personal development a common household practice in the UK and globally by 2031. To develop a systematic and authentic way for people to stay focused and manage their mindset using a cross between experiential learning and digital assets (Fully functional Masteri Academy) by 2026. We hope also to create partnerships with Office for Students and AMOSSHE and to be a leading training and consultancy provider for students and businesses who want to support the mental growth of students.

Find out more about the Masteri group here.
Find out how you can involved with the UoB Elevate programme.

With thanks to Louise Lyons-Appiah
Introduced by Bob Lee