beyond the masks
An in-depth company training to foster:
TRUTH
OPEnNESS
COURAGEOUS LEADERSHIP
by Sjors Boelaars
About me
Sjors Boelaars Leadership Coach, Facilitator, Former Captain & Innovation Consultant
Sjors started his career with a philosophy degree, then spent years at the helm of ocean-going sailing yachts, built a food company, and worked as an innovation consultant helping corporates think like startups. He moved through the world of business, strategy, and performance until a burnout stopped everything.
That breakdown became the entry point for fifteen years of serious inner work: breathwork, somatic therapy, shadow work, and facilitation. What started as sheer necessity became the work he was built for.
He now works with leaders and teams who have hit the ceiling of the external game and are ready for the layer underneath. His work is experiential, body-based, and direct. He doesn't coach from theory. He works from what's actually happening in the room.
Alongside Beyond The Masks, Sjors is co-founder of Heroes Journey, where he guides week-long wilderness expeditions in Norway and Spain for men navigating major life transitions. He is also a trainer at Nature Quest, one of the Netherlands' leading outdoor leadership programs. Nature consistently functions as his most powerful facilitation tool: it strips away performance, accelerates honesty, and creates conditions no boardroom can replicate.
Beyond The Masks is rated 9.2 by participants. Clients include corporate teams at multinationals including Unilever.
Available as freelance trainer for leadership programs, offsites, and team development trajectories.
Clients we have worked with:
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Frisse Blikken
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Unilever
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BROUT Leadership
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Nature quest
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The School of Life
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Albert Heijn
Imagine
a workspace where you can thrive as
a courageous leader
Where you can be
Truly yourself
Truly connected
Truly inclusive
Where your full human potential gets unlocked
It’s possible if we go
beyond the masks
The promise:
In this training you enter a future where you work at a place where you can totally be yourself with all your flaws and insecurities.
You moved beyond the political games and you have the skills to share your experience in every situation.
You’ve unlocked your creative team potential because everybody has the courage to bring their full potential to the table.
“Sjors is a great and comprehensive leader. Taking over the diversity of the team members and backgrounds he managed to offer each of us a personal journey ..”
— Berith, Performance Marketing & Retail Media Specialist, Unilever
What your team will learn:
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Deep inquiry
Building on the work of AH Almaas, we use powerful questions to invite you to reveal yourself and to stay with this experience. To feel into the answers you give and move from the head into the whole body.
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Non-Violent Communication
If you can share your real need there will always be a connection. For every human has the same needs. It's only our strategies on how to get these needs met that differ. When we both show up with our true needs we can work together on a strategy that will fulfill both.
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Body- & Breathwork
Our whole body is a tool for communication and a source of information. When we move out of our heads we can really meet.
After this workshop:
You have:
The skills to drop out of the head and into the body.
The communication skills to lead people in a deep and honest conversation.
More present and awareness when in contact with others.
Connected on a deep level with your purpose for working in this team.
You are aware of the gift you bring to the team but also what is challenging for you.
A breathwork practice to start your day or re-center yourself during the day.
You have stepped out of your comfort zone.
The team has:
A method to clear conflict.
Experienced the power of deep sharing.
Taken a real step in creating a culture of truth and vulnerability.
A program to keep deepening for the next three months.
What you will get:
Two-day immersion. Details can be communicated with the program coordinator but will be kept secret for participants to deliver maximum effect in the moment.
Three months follow up program, to keep the fire burning.
Breath- & bodywork tools to connect body and mind.
Deep inquiry structures that will change the way you relate in life.
Case:
2 day in-company training
TEAM: DIGITAL MARKETING - Unilever GERMANY
Team size: 12 participants
The Challenge
The team was coming out of a demanding period. Departures, sustained overload, and accumulated loss had left the group running on fumes. Marco, the team lead, needed more than a reset. He needed the team to actually trust each other, not just function together.
The surface culture was warm and collegial. The deeper dynamic told a different story: a perfectionistic undercurrent that made honest feedback rare, risk-taking uncomfortable, and the real tensions largely unspoken. People were kind to each other. They weren't fully honest with each other.
The ask: rebuild the relational foundation and give the team tools to sustain it without a facilitator in the room.
IMPACT
"BTM was a transformational, retreat-like workshop. By far the best team workshop I ever did."
"I feel a much deeper connection to my team now, but also to my inner self. A lot of masks were dropped. I'm confident we're creating something with a new sense of family."
LONG TRANSFORMATION
Three months after the workshop, a follow-up call with Marco confirmed the following:
100% team retention.
The team had self-organized a monthly reflection session, continuing the format without external facilitation.
The majority of team members had adopted a daily 10-minute breathwork practice.
Check-in rounds had become a team standard. Marco reported that people showed up open and honest from the first minute, something that hadn't existed before.
Marco's leadership position was actively supported by the group, across seniority lines.
The team identified their next growth edge: moving from a psychologically safe but conflict-avoidant culture toward one where the bigger conversations actually happen.
The Approach
The two-day workshop used embodied group work, structured vulnerability practices, and peer-to-peer accountability processes to surface what the team had been carrying but not saying.
Key elements included check-in rounds that went below the surface immediately, clearing structures to address interpersonal tension directly, blessing practices to work with difficulty receiving recognition (a significant edge for this group), and tools the team could take home and use weekly.
No slides. No theory. Predominantly experiential.
Experiences from participants:
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Experiences from participants: *
Price on request
Write to me and we’ll book a call to discuss what’s possible.
