Keelan Doyle, Founder of ØTHERS / Multi-Sensory Wellness

In this episode of the Menswear Style Podcast, host Peter Brooker speaks to Keelan Doyle, co-founder of ØTHERS, a pioneering wellness brand combining functional fragrance, sound, technology and mindfulness to create a more immersive approach to everyday wellbeing.

ØTHERS was created around a simple idea: what if familiar daily rituals, such as applying fragrance, could be used for more than simply smelling good? Drawing on neuroscience, music production and behavioural science, the brand combines functional scents with soundscapes, meditation, breathwork and philosophy to create multi-sensory experiences designed to encourage focus, relaxation and greater mindfulness.

Keelan shares the story behind ØTHERS and explains how his own fast-paced lifestyle, work in the city and background as a music producer led him to investigate the potential of scent as a tool for wellbeing.

The conversation explores the science and psychology of smell, including how scent interacts with the brain and why fragrance can create powerful emotional associations. Keelan explains the thinking behind ØTHERS' functional fragrances, including products designed to support calm and relaxation as well as focus and flow.

We also dive into the ØTHERS app, which combines specially created music and soundscapes with guided experiences around meditation, breathwork and emotional resilience. Content covers everything from sleep and morning routines to creative block, deep thought, stress, identity, meaning and imposter syndrome.

Keelan discusses why the brand takes a deeper approach to wellness rather than simply promising constant positivity. He explains the philosophy behind learning to recognise and process difficult emotions and how mindfulness, breathing and sensory cues can help build greater emotional resilience.

The episode also explores the idea of using scent and sound to create powerful behavioural associations. Keelan discusses Pavlovian conditioning and the concept of using repeated rituals to build connections between a particular fragrance, sound and a desired mental state.

We also talk about the creative process behind ØTHERS, including the team's work with musicians, producers, writers and thinkers from around the world. Keelan reveals collaborations involving artists such as Max Cooper and explains how music, philosophy, fragrance and technology come together within the brand.

Looking ahead, Keelan shares plans to expand the ØTHERS app with more content and make it available as a standalone wellness platform, opening up its meditation, sound, breathwork and philosophical content to a much wider audience.

A fascinating conversation about men’s grooming, functional fragrance, wellness, mindfulness, meditation, breathwork, sound therapy, neuroscience, behavioural science and the future of sensory technology.

Discover ØTHERS at others.co and explore more menswear, grooming, lifestyle and style content at menswearstyle.co.uk.

www.menswearstyle.co.uk

Transcript

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SPEAKER_02 0:21

It's a co-founder of the brand Ovid. And Avid is a very interesting concept. And I think Keelan is going to explain it a lot better than me, but I'm just going to give you the thumbnail. Ovid is a new multi-century digital wellness experiment with a 360-degree fusion of sound technology and science biomechanically retube bringing you back to center. Brilliant. Well listen, it's a it's an app, it's a fragrance, it's philosophy, it's all the good things that you need in your life to kind of make you a better human being, basically. But I think Keelan is going to best describe this in his own words. So I'm going to hang it over to him, Keelan Boyle, the co-founder of Others.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

We started Others kind of just back before the pandemic hit, or before we kind of even knew what others, uh what uh you know COVID even was, um, even the word. Um and uh it's been a lot, it's been a journey to get to this point. Um Others is an interesting brand that's been developing in real time, you could say, uh over the past three years as the world's kind of been shifting and kind of changing relatively quick. Um and others is a is a space, it's a it's a it's a brand that does more than one thing. Um we are essentially a um a wellness brand that offers products as well as an app. And what we've done is we've combined in our first product, which is fusing the idea of scent and sound, um, two powerful kind of entities on their own, that we've kind of joined together to create this kind of dual um intervention, if you like. The scents themselves are functional fragrances, which we've designed to have a functional benefit, if you like. One is to help relax and calm, and the other one is to help focus uh and create kind of flow uh state. Um, each one's backed by science. Um, we ran a neuroscience study to show how the effects of these work on the brain through the olfactory um receptors of the brain. Um, this combined with sound, which is all housed on our app, um, creates an experience that's a lot more multi-sensory. Um, and essentially, when you purchase these functional fragrances that you can wear, or you can also use as kind of a daily ritual practice. So if you ever practice meditation in the morning, um, you can use this uh functional scent along with the app to create a kind of uh whether it's a 10-minute experience um using breath work, meditation, sound, and scent all combined together.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

So um, yeah, that's kind of the long-winded kind of introduction of no, that's that's a lot to take in, but also I mean, really interesting because I don't think I've heard of uh something like this before where you can kind of try and fuse a lot of the senses to achieve the same goal. I mean, especially with scent, I think. So perhaps we can just start there. Would you mind talking us through the starting steps of how you kind of got from A to B, idea to idea to execution?

SPEAKER_00 3:44

100%, yeah. So, I mean, my background was um, I mean, we'll we'll we'll talk about scent first, but my background was as a music producer. So um I'll link that on in a moment. But the reason why I kind of was uh interested in in the power of scent was um I was actually living quite a busy lifestyle myself for a number of years working uh in the city, traveling a lot. Um, but I noticed that I was I was finding less and less time to to actually kind of take care of my own well-being. Uh, I was never really one for meditating, breath work, all of that. I I kind of I always put it on the back burner. Um and I realized that what could I do in my day, or what am I doing every day that I'm doing subconsciously um that could kind of be turned into a bit of a benefit or a window of time that I could use and be more mindful. Um so I was thinking about my root, my sort of program every morning I woke up, you know, you get up, you get out of bed, sometimes fall out of bed, um, especially with two young kids, um, and have a shower, you get ready, you get washed, you you you know, you get changed and you spray normally you spray after shave before you leave the door. Um and that moment of you know, that act of kind of spraying every day, I'm doing this every day as much as I'm brushing my teeth. I wonder if scent could have a more of an impact or more of a use rather than just smelling good uh, you know, for other people, whether it could be turned inward and used as a tool. Um and that kind of set me off on the path to really sort of dive deep into what actually scent can do um and how it can benefit us, um, given that you most people use it every day and it's kind of on on them all day.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

Um yeah, that's a really good point, actually. Just to jump in there. I've got so like you brush your teeth, you have a wash, everything is kind of geared around health for you. So you want to brush your teeth, you're not just doing that for the guy behind the news agent stand. You know, you want to have good teeth. But spraying cologne is perhaps the one thing that we do for other people. That's a selfless act. It's almost like the most altruistic act we could do. It's like, well, this is my gift to you. I'm gonna smell pretty good in your presence. No need to thank me, but we'll just uh, you know, this the one thing that you can do for other people is smell.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

That's it, yeah. And I mean it's interesting over like you know, over history, the kind of the uses of scent has as shifted and changed and been, you know, re-molded, you know. Um originally, you know, it was used a lot back in, you know, back in the day for like medicinal purposes, for ceremonies, for rituals. If you go back through lots of different um cultures, uh there's many different ways in which scent's kind of adopted and used. So what we're trying to do is kind of reform the way we think about using scent, um, and the idea that you've got this kind of physical aspect. It's a reminder, it's like a tangible reminder that every time you spray this, to think a bit more mindfully. And that could be as easy as just then, you know, walking out the door and putting the headphones on, loading the others up and allowing the sound aspect to kind of you know kind of carry you on your way to the tube station, you know, rather than just scrambling out the door and running. And that's kind of it's almost like trying to find these quick hacks to build in those habits and those routines to then adopt a more of a mindful uh lifestyle. Because it's hard, the challenge is always to try and keep up with you know your mental health, which is a challenge in itself, you know, to find the time and to do it.

SPEAKER_02 7:21

So I guess with the the with the app, the audio version might fall into your wheelhouse. I'm guessing you're kind of doing a lot of that, as in in terms of you're producing the music and the sounds, and that might come more naturally to you or a lateral move at least. But making and creating the sense. Did you have any background knowledge about that going in, other than just you know using your personal sense in your own life?

SPEAKER_00 7:45

To be very honest, no. Um, my world was very much sound-oriented. Um, but as I started looking into scent, I started uncovering that there's a lot of similarities between kind of how scent works and how sound works. They're both kind of these facilitators that are opening kind of doors into emotion and you know, optimization and kind of uh the different kinds of pathways that it triggers um through the brain, uh, and this idea of kind of reforming habits and stuff like that. So it's uh no, it was really much a learning process for several months to really dive deep and work with a lot of experts and know a lot more uh than me about scent, um, to then uh yeah, kind of guide the journey of developing the scent and process.

SPEAKER_02 8:36

Right. I mean, with the scent, I would imagine so how I combine what I think is already an experience on your app, how I try and do that in my own life is maybe the missus might spray a little bit of lavender on the pillow, and I've got one of these cozy head masks where I listen to rainforest, uh rainforest rain, effectively, to try and dose off, which is uh a lot different from like rain on the street pavement or rain on the oceans. I've got I'm a sucker for rainforest rain. That can that can just knock me to someone. But the actual uh so I kind of have a little bit of lavender and blah de blah. It's all um it's all it's all set up for me that way, but I guess you're you're making something as an experience for people to be awake and conscious and mindful going forward rather than dozing off and falling asleep, or maybe you can tell me.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Yeah, so a lot of the approach in the content that we've created to kind of partner with these scent and sound experiences. Um obviously the sound derived, so there's soundscapes that we've created. Um and the idea behind this, or the philosophy really behind it, is that you know we we too often run away from difficult emotions. Um, you know, it's something we just inherently do as humans. It's like we want to just be happy all the time and sort of suppress the negative feelings, which can work sometimes in our favor, but it's usually just a short-term kind of fix. And what others really stand for is trying to get go a layer deeper. So a lot of the content we've got is there for you to kind of sit and learn to kind of understand and process emotions that we all feel day-to-day. Like you it's impossible to run away from stress all the time, you know, a little bit of stress is is good, constant state of stress is probably not so good. Um, but these kind of anxieties and these different emotions are stuff that we always will have uh in one shape or another. So the more comfortable we can get with them, I think the more emotionally resilient we become. So all of the content and the way in which we sort of suggest meditating or suggest experiencing this um is to yeah, be more conscious, be more mindful of the full spectrum of emotions. So some of the categories in the app are you know, music created for deep thought, music created for creative block, music for um, you know, kind of imposter syndrome when you're having those moments. And the idea is that we keep building these sort of quite unique categories of music to allow people to uh connect to these relatable kind of feelings. But as well as that, we also, you know, we cater for things like sleep, uh, for for you know morning routines of just optimization. It's it's a full spectrum, really.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Okay. Oh, that's interesting. Are you thinking of broadening other categories out within the app? Maybe I know, like philosophical podcasts or uh life-affirming maxims that you need to say in front of the mirror before you leave the house each day.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

For sure, yeah. So I mean, uh, you know, all of our content is is very, I'd say it's it's raw, it's approachable, it's honest, and I'm hoping that it's relatable. Um, you know, it's we have a lot of uh different types of content. So we have the all these soundscapes libraries that I just mentioned, as well as um a whole section for breath work, um, which is uh something I've been doing a lot over the last couple of years. Um and uh this particular breath work actually focuses more on breath holds rather than you know breath accounts. Um again, it's sort of to challenge and to sort of build that resilience to anxiety with a sort of long-term benefit as well as a short-term benefit of reducing stress. Um, and the con the other section is this kind of philosophical narrative-led series, which is somewhere in between a podcast, audio book, and meditation series that takes you through this journey looking at different topics such as identity, um, meaning, uh, you know, independence. So it's really the app is a toolbook for um a toolbox, sorry, for I guess kind of just training yourself to be a better, more resilient, optimized version of yourself that can thrive in today's quite chaotic world, uh something we all need.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, it's it's interesting you touched on the breathing there. Uh that was one thing that I found. Uh I used to have uh real trouble with claustrophobia, but not in so much like small rooms or small buildings. It would be if I was in the cinema and I was in the middle row and I I couldn't like get out quickly, I'd have to kind of run over people's legs, like you know, like you do in soccer practice when you have to go through car tires. That's what you have to do when you're in the middle row, right? Trying to get out of the out of your seat. I so I would actually just feel very, very uh anxious and have all this kind of sweat build up. And breathing was the first thing that I actually started to do to get around that, where you if you feel like you can just get through the first five minutes and you just focus on breathing, you probably won't even get you won't even count five minutes, you'll be done by the minute one and two, and then the rest you might enjoy the film or whatever it is that you're you're you're trying to you're trying to achieve. And also if you I found if you take yourself out of the equation a lot of the times, like if you imagine you're you kind of have this big broad view where you're looking at yourself from overhead and there's not just you in the room, but there's like a a thousand people and you can't even see you, you're a dot and it's insignificant. You've you almost you feel like, well, I'm putting all this unnecessary weight of the world on my shoulders. Whereas if you have a if if you kind of just take yourself out of the equation and go, well, it doesn't really matter if I throw up right here. What's the worst that's gonna happen? It doesn't really matter if uh people just say, Oh, that's inconvenient, you're getting me out of my seat. Do you know what I mean? It's it I do think people are so in their own head a lot of the time, and that kind of culminates to like this anxiety and this this this unnecessary stress that people put themselves through on a daily basis.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

But that's it, and and we all do it, myself included, and that's kind of what led me to this journey. Um, that uh I've always been such a I mean, most people um can relate, I'm sure, but yeah, I always I always was sort of one, I was a bit of an introvert, uh, and you know, just had a lot of anxieties about kind of just when I look back, like pointless things, but at the time they were really big things, and I think it's just uh, you know, it's the more you look into those things and analyze them, um, the more you understand them and learn to kind of overcome them. Um, but I think there's a there's definitely a there's a big sort of problem we've got collectively with this kind of social anxiety, this kind of world that we live in, which is very fast-based, um, and trying to find your place in it all is a big challenge. And yeah, we carry a lot of weight around us all the time. And you know, breathing does remind us to just be present and to sit with the self. And uh, yeah, uh when you combine that with the philosophy that we kind of have within the app and the scent element of it, it really creates this experience that feels um a bit more, you know, quite quite more profound than just if you were to do each thing independently. And I don't know if you've ever heard about um Pavlov's theory, you know, with the dog and the bell. Um, where they run a we run an experiment, and I can't remember exactly what year they got this, but it's like a famous kind of study where um they they tested uh sort of reactions on a dog by bringing a bell. And every time the dog heard the bell, it ran to the bell and they'd give it some meat, and the dog would salivate on the way. They kept you know, kept doing this continuously.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

And uh oh, I have heard of this, but yeah, sorry, Karen. Yeah, I know what that's it, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

And then eventually, eventually they you know they took the meat away and they rang the bell, but the dog still salivated because he associated, you know, he almost built the connections that that relates to that, and that means that that's the the output is me salivating. So um the reason I bring that up is because with the scent, it's almost if we're looking at trying to, I guess the goal of trying to retrain our behavior to to to our own sort of understanding of the self and like our the mental health crisis that we're going in into. Um this idea that the scent acts as almost that piece um and the sound. So when you eventually um you know develop those particular uh behaviors through this ritual um over a period of time, then eventually when you're carrying around that scent with you, you you won't need to be doing the practices, you won't need to be doing the deep work because your brain will have already built that association to the scent to allow you to sit in that kind of place of like contentment and peace.

SPEAKER_02 18:06

So it's kind of muscle memory for the for the brain that will connect and remember what's going on with the scent and what's going on with like those affirmations of calm and peace.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

Exactly. Yeah, it's just kind of essentially rewiring our brains, if you like. It's uh this kind of uh biohacking approach of you know, um, retraining our behavior through uh through the sort of sense sound element, the sensory elements that we put together.

SPEAKER_02 18:32

Uh you know, that Pavlov's fair you mentioned. I just I have how I've heard of it. I don't know if you watch The Office, the American version of The Office. Yes. So uh one of the guys uh he he's sitting opposite uh Dwight, I think his name, I forget the other guy's name, but he hits something on his computer and it makes a sound like a like an email ping. And each time he does it, he reaches over the desk and gives Dwight some gum, right? And he does this very like for about two weeks, keeps hitting the ping, and then offers the gum. And then one day he hits the ping but doesn't offer the gum, but Dwight just instantly puts his hand out.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

I recall the episode. I think I've seen it as a as a as a kind of gif or something recently. That's yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:16

So that's that's kind of that, right? And then and then he's like like scratching around his mouth and he's kind of drooling for some kind of fix. But yeah, so that's that's how I've heard of that. Um oh, that's really interesting. So how do people access the the app? Is it something that you pay for on subscription, or do you get the app free and then pay for the cents? So what's uh what's the payment gateway?

SPEAKER_00 19:39

Yeah, so currently um the app itself is only accessible um when you purchase one of the fragrances. Um uh they come each each fragrance comes with six months subscription. Uh and the reason we sort of chose six months is because the bottles are 50 milliliters, so we kind of based it on a ratio of how many times we expect people to averagely use the fragrance. The the app kind of would would cater for that. Um, but we are in the process of, which goes back to your other question um about more content and and what are we doing, what's the plan? Um, we are building out the app to cater for a lot more content and variety of content, uh, and we plan to very soon release the app as a standalone to allow people to access this without a kind of you know having to you know reach for uh the product, um, you know, because obviously it retails at 90 pound um and you know we want people to access this app um in a large scale. So we you know we're at the end of the day, we're here to to add to society and to add and help us where we can, as many people as we can. So yeah, we are looking at um releasing that uh in the coming months.

SPEAKER_02 20:56

Interesting. Well, listen, how many people have you got going on in the team that's building content around the app?

SPEAKER_00 21:03

Yeah, I mean, we we have a really amazing team, and that's to be honest, the heart of what others is. I mean, it's kind of a brand built on people, that's why we kind of called it others. Um, and we're lucky enough to be working with some really fascinating um people and thinkers. Um, so we have um Alex Ebert, who's the kind of voice of the app. Um, he creates he's created The Ponder Content, which is all of this philosophical narrative series. Um, and then we work with a range of music producers uh from around the world, um some in Italy, some in America, some in uh in the UK. Um, and the team's building all the time. Um, so yeah, there's there's a lot more collaborations to come and in the pipeline that are very exciting. Um also we work with Max Cooper, who's um kind of a well-known international um DJ and music producer. Um I was always a very big fan of. So to be working with him uh on this startup project, it was really amazing. Um and yeah, I mean, there's a small team of us behind that are running the kind of day-to-day um tight-knit team of uh people, uh writers, uh you know, collaborators, thinkers, um driving the driving the ship.

SPEAKER_02 22:25

Great. Well, an exciting venture, and the ship can be found over at others.co, I believe is the website. And yeah, nice and simple.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

Others.co. Uh you can find out more there. And also we we post a lot of content on our Instagram, uh, a lot of kind of uh short films and thought-provoking content that um yeah, you can go and check others underscore co on Instagram.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

I'm heading there now. That's good stuff. Brilliant, Keelan. Thanks so much for taking time out and uh really exciting project. It's certainly something I'm gonna be needing for the next few months. I might even give it, I might even give it to my neighbor upstairs as a little peace offering.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

Well, yeah, we hope you find it useful. I mean, it's uh it's a pleasure to yeah, to be uh chatting to you and thanks for having me on today.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

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