Explore enlightening conversation that empowers you to cultivate a thriving business based on inner sustainability and self-sovereign choices.
Ever feel out of step with the frenzied pace of the entrepreneurial world? Take a moment to breathe and realign with your authentic business rhythm. Discover how the seven-year business cycle can be a transformational tool for both corporate behemoths and heart-centered entrepreneurs, alike.
Scaling a business isn't a universal fit for every entrepreneur, and this episode spotlights the wisdom in discerning your business's unique growth tempo. We unpack the nuances of sustainable expansion and how maintaining quality, integrity, and a human touch are cornerstones for scaling up.
In a time when societal rebirth is taking shape, we delve into how these rhythms can leave a lasting mark. From analyzing the importance of business seasons, to how Human Design can lead to better choices, this episode is a treasure trove for Conscious Creators.
Mentioned:
‘Entrepreneurs Are The New Humanitarians’ Article
7 Year Business Cycle IG Post to Orient Yourself
The 7 Year Business Workshop
Jasmine Nnenna: 0:03
This is Erah Society and you are listening to the Counter Cultural Podcast. Hello and welcome back to the podcast. This episode we are going to be talking about a very cool topic and I'm calling it the seven year business cycle. Now, I don't actually know how I stumbled upon this, but it was through a series of different patterns and books and just watching other entrepreneurs and how they're running their business and what they're doing. Obviously, you never really know how anyone's running their business behind the scenes, but it's cool. If you are maybe fear motivation like me and you're just into research, or even if you're a first line profiled like the investigator, you just want to know and get to the bottom of things and I love studying and obviously I love studying business and hardcore. I'm calling it hardcore like the drug, hardcore business, like LinkedIn, space business, corporate I should say corporate business and seeing how we can learn from them.
Alex Verville:
1:28
Do you want to say why? Why do you like that so much? We've been talking a lot about that. Okay, yeah, that's good. Why are you obsessed with like business and like? Yeah, I could give you my what I've told you as to why? Which?
Jasmine Nnenna:
1:42
you have said yes. Well, now I don't want to hear yours.
Alex Verville:
1:47
No, no, no. If I feel like your answer is lacking anything, I will.
Jasmine Nnenna:
1:50
Oh lacking.
Alex Verville:
1:52
Or you know me, I like to be dramatic, slash, romanticize everything, okay here's what I would say.
Jasmine Nnenna:
1:59
I would say that I think one of the main reasons why I really love studying corporate business or, like you could even say, non-heart driven- business is because I think that us and I'm putting myself in this group of conscious, spiritual, spiritually based creatives and entrepreneurs we don't have enough structure. I think that we are so deeply connected to the heart and we want to do so much good in the world, but then, when it comes to having the material means to do that good in the world, we tend to lack there and we also tend to lack the knowledge to get there. I think that sometimes we're afraid. We're afraid of being in the material world, and I remember, during a meditation a few months ago, I just heard spirit so clearly say to me you need to make your physical world your spiritual work, because you are lacking here. You are lacking like you can talk about the cosmos for 1100 hours, but I need you to know how to, more than survive in the material world. Because actually, what's happening in this new paradigm, this Aquarian age, is that we are going to see the standards raise higher and higher and higher on food, on safety, on intimacy, relationships in schools. Every single aspect that we have known our society to be in it's going to change. And that was really the inspiration for era. Era represents, or the definition of era, is the emerging Renaissance age of human society. It's everything that's about to change and everything that is going to be the future, and we are the ones creating it right now. Those of us that are in era society not just you follow the Instagram. I'm not talking about that. Era society is a consciousness. If you are following this consciousness of the emerging Renaissance age of human society, whether you're an educator, whether you are an entrepreneur, whether you're an artist, whether you are a parent, a partner, your life is going to change in the next 20 years because the collective life is going to change. And because I am an entrepreneur and that is the environment that I am in. I'm also a philosopher, a musician, all these different things I have to tend to the environments that I'm going to be in. I want to contribute to that. This is still going to be, at its core, an equal energetic exchange to two consenting parties exchanging something. That's what business is, that's what bartering is. Two consenting parties are coming together over an equal energy exchange. I have this thing, I love it, you have that thing, I want it, and we exchange. What I've noticed in myself, obviously, first, and then in those around me, is that we have these amazing ideas and these solutions and all these visions and things that we want to contribute to the world, but we don't know how. As a third line, I'm like, okay, well, I need to figure out how. Then, as a fifth line, it's like, oh, I need to share how I did that, in hopes that that would inspire you to maybe figure out your own how, or to skip steps with my own experience and then go straight for the bullseye of what I've already experienced and accomplished. It's almost like I'm going to it's not the dark side, but it's like going to the other side and then bringing back and saying, hey guys, we need to talk about profit models.
Alex Verville:
5:47
We need to talk about funding.
Jasmine Nnenna:
5:50
We need to talk about Things on this side. Yeah, yeah.
Alex Verville:
5:54
Well, and but that, right, there is the joke that I actually find, through looking at the paradigm of business, like through your, through the lens of how I've always seen you, which is artists first, has been so transformative because actually, you know, I find art you know whether that be like physical art or like music, you know, or cinema, or like the, the normal mediums that we determine as art right, it's actually more rigid than business in a way, like in terms of what it says you can and cannot do. If you're bringing something that's never been done and you're obsessed with doing things that have never been done, you know, like that's just and anything that's innovative, like that's always what I've known you to be so passionate about. And so business because capitalism is kind of the model that the world runs on right is if you can make something that someone else will buy, right, and we found that there are all kinds of beautiful and crazy and wild things out there that people are selling. You can do and create whatever you want. And so I feel like, as the world is changing, as you said, in the next 20 years, that business like would be in as business as an art form, right, or business as a yoga, like from last season, talking about life, like you know, as a spiritual entrepreneur, you know, or entrepreneurship as a spiritual path? I think was the last episode. We did right like connecting it to that season finale season.
Jasmine Nnenna:
7:22
Finale season five, season five.
Alex Verville:
7:24
Yeah, it goes right into the first, yeah, medium that could welcome that type of like abstract, you know, like art is business because yeah, it's like if it can be commodified yet, then go ahead.
Jasmine Nnenna:
7:37
Yeah, I think that that, along with all the other industries, are going to be changing and obviously business will be one of the biggest ones because we have so much money involved in that, and then I hope the medical industry Will walk in tandem with that, just with what we know about wellness and well-being and alternative medicine yeah, all the things you know healing yourself From the energetic root causes of things which I've talked about on this podcast many times.
Alex Verville:
8:07
Oh.
Jasmine Nnenna:
8:07
I think that those two things, business and medicine will really be like the first industries, highly impacted by the consciousness, the collective consciousness awakening. Yeah and so I love Going and learning about all these different things and then bringing them back to share them with my people. Yeah, because we need to. You know, there's nothing more that I want than to have businesses be run by founders who are conscious, yeah, and who, and who want to make money, because you know that's. The other thing, too, is like yeah, we have these beautiful businesses, but are they profitable? Right, they need to be profitable. You need to be making money, yeah. Yeah it's not just okay that you have a great idea and you're being of service. We live on a material plane, mm-hmm, and this is our spiritual work. Yeah is is refining and Raising the standards of the material plane into something that is heaven on earth, is a new earth now. So that's my little, that's my spiel.
Alex Verville:
9:08
Yeah how best of why I'm even in it or and or how the seven-year business cycle came to you.
Jasmine Nnenna:
9:15
Yeah, so it was through a bunch of late night deep dives into books and articles on how businesses are run and Also watching a lot of interviews. You heard me watch a lot of those like David Rubenstein yeah, c-span art Interviews on on YouTube where I'm just like hopping from founder to founder to founder and and I'm just I don't know what I'm listening for, but I'm just like I know I need to be here and I'm listening for some potential. I'm listening for potential, I'm listening for, I'm listening for truth. Yeah, even if it's not coming out of Someone that maybe I, my mind, deems as a truthful person. Yeah, because you know. Okay, let's, let's get spiritual for a second. It's like money isn't moralistic. Yes we are, and so whenever we go and we See these billionaires and millionaires and then we have these judgments that we have against them we can't actually hear what they're caring, we can't hear the truth that they're caring in their vessel and then be able to listen, receive that and then utilize it in a new way. That's actually for the collective. We stand so tall on our soapboxes of like eat the rich and it's like, yeah, eat them, but like listen to what they have to say first and then maybe you can eat them Because there's something that's coming through them for all of us, for all of us. Yes, they have just distorted it to only be used for them, right? But that spirit spirit is not saying oh, I'm not gonna, you know, give Jeff Bezos like the ideas. Yeah, yeah yeah, god is not moral, God's not a moral God. It's like, okay, you, you're available for it. Here it is, I'm ready to give it to you. Yeah, so I think we we have some ways to go in the spiritual space. When we start talking about the material world is like, instead of villainizing it and demonizing it and saying, like, what, whatever we want to say about it, we really need to embrace money, we need to embrace divine currency, we need to listen to it and we need to understand how it works, instead of complaining and waiting for these billionaires to Somehow be more philanthropic. It's like, stop waiting for those people. Yeah, like listen to what they have to say, take what it is that is resonant with you and then go and apply it in your new paradigm perspective way. Yeah, because I wrote an article about how I forget the exact title, but it was about how, oh, I remember the title. It's entrepreneurs are the new humanitarians, but philanthropy is not going to save us, and I will link that below because, if I, if I say so myself, that was a fire. Yeah, it's still yeah it touched on so many points that you know I could talk for days about like the whole philanthropic mindset and how it's like charity, this and nonprofit, that it's like Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, like let's try and make a profitable business that is philanthropic from the beginning. Yeah, so we don't have to try to do a reactionary Prescription to go and then start a nonprofit. It's like no, make your business. Yeah profitable for the people first.
Alex Verville:
12:44
Make it profitable for the people, and then we can talk about these extras, yeah, of a nonprofit because when you do that, there always will be that excess, always not like we're taking from you know my energy and time to make sure I know exactly what's going on with my team. You know what I mean and and and what they're feeling right like as a form of humanitarianism. You know it's okay. Yeah, we also have our. We also have our charity that we're giving money to so we're all good.
Jasmine Nnenna:
13:16
Yeah, what I found was that each company and brand Was moving in in a very interesting way. They were doing certain things in certain years and in certain seasons. I broke it down into seasons, but I noticed that they were moving through seven year cycles. And if you know human design and you know the deconditioning route, you know that rah has always talked about how it takes seven years to decondition Seven years for a child's first core memories. And then we go from Seven to fourteen, fourteen to twenty one and we're just moving in these seven year cycles.
Alex Verville:
13:53
And even isn't. Even. Isn't it like in biology, like we're completely Brand new person every seven? Yeah, turn over, yeah, okay.
Jasmine Nnenna:
14:02
So this seven is a big so K there's? yeah, obviously he's already within it's already within there, and I was reading this book when it was talking about all these different businesses and all the different ways that they've gone on to become innovators in their industries, and how Dyson, the vacuum cleaner company, spent 15 years in r&d before Becoming the best-selling vacuum in the uk. 15 years is two seven year cycles, so instead of them choosing to go so profit first over high quality product, they invested for two seven year cycles On r&d and or in r&d research and development, and so just reading their story, I was like, ah, that's the first season, so the more that I did my research, I started to see, okay, each business is moving In a different way in different season. Why, why, like I wanted to know what is behind this pattern that some Businesses are scaling in this in the you know, fifth and sixth year. They're not scaling in the in the. In the first and second year they're doing something different. So I wondered how can that, or how can we, as entrepreneurs, reflect that seven-year cycle To mitigate one of the main things that we're always talking about, which is founder well-being and founder burnout? Yeah, how can we mitigate that? How can we increase our profits in a very sustainable way? Because everyone keeps talking about sustainability, but do we actually know what that means, instead of just saying, oh, I want the thing to be sustainable. How do you make something sustainable? Sustainability means that it's not taking More than it's required to make the thing and that it's also regenerative.
Alex Verville:
16:01
So it's self-sufficient. It's also is adding to the whole.
Jasmine Nnenna:
16:05
Exactly, and so if you're wanting to build a business like that, it's gonna take a lot of steps. It's not just oh, I have a great idea going to market today. No, you're right, you're right.
Alex Verville:
16:15
You're right, because I'm even literally, as you were talking, I was even thinking about all of these companies that maybe in year one or year two and they take because of the idea, like hundreds of millions of dollars, like in Investments, and they just bottom out. They're just throwing cash here, throwing cash there because there's no. Yeah, there was no, like like you said in season one. I think in your article you said like it's like throwing spaghetti on the wall and see what sticks you know there's. They're in that process and it doesn't matter how much money you have it yours, you're not gonna be able to sustain it.
Jasmine Nnenna:
16:48
It doesn't. It doesn't matter how much money you have if you have no foundation, and so every business needs a season where they focus on their foundation. And that leads me into the first season, so the first season in the seven-year cycle, and, if you haven't already caught it, it's seven years. So, depending on how many years you've been in your business I don't want you to measure it based off of the years- just yet I want you to listen through yeah and then assess and orient yourself to. Even though my business is three years old, I'm still an R&D, yeah, and so be honest with where you're at. So season one is all about research and development, and this is typically I use the word typically because if you're starting with the knowledge of a seven-year business Model, then you will start with years one in two in business and research and development, and Season one is literally about you. It's not about your customers, it's not about anyone else. It's about you, as a founder, finding your footing as a founder. Finding your footing as a founder understanding your gifts, understanding your talents, understanding your abilities and If you're listening to this, obviously you know human design. So you're like way ahead of the game. Season one is all about you learning your human design and Practicing with your experiment, your strategy and authority, making decisions with your strategy and authority. That's how you get that firm footing as a founder, as an entrepreneur.
Alex Verville:
18:35
Yeah, that's.
Jasmine Nnenna:
18:36
That's really how you're just like you can go into any room and say uh-uh or uh-huh, or that's not for me, or projector, waiting for the invitation, or understanding what you're here to guide, so on and so forth, and I think these are the years that get Trampled on the most by far because everyone just wants to quickly go to market and make money. They see someone going viral and they're like, oh, I want to do that. It's like I know you want to do that, I want to do that too.
Alex Verville:
19:00
I mean, that's. That's why, through our own experiment, when we were in season one and two, and I know we'll get to it, but it's like that one of the main obstacles, you know, is forcing it to make money for you. Mm-hmm, right, he's like. You and I just were like, yeah, we're not doing any other thing than this, you know, and we were, we're starving.
Jasmine Nnenna:
19:19
Yeah, because the world around you says that if you don't have a successful business, then you're not a true entrepreneur, and I say that's bullshit. Yeah, I say that entrepreneurship is a it's a spectrum and it's a marathon, it's not a sprint. And the smart entrepreneurs are the ones that are creating generational legacy, generational wealth. They're not. They're not enticed by the low hanging fruit of just 10k months Grab. They don't want the cash grabs. They want sustained revenue, revenue maintenance ability. They want their projects, their companies, to continue to make money Even when they're not here. Yeah they want their businesses to leave a deep Impact. Think of a company like Patagonia. It's like what you're a billion dollar company and All of the different initiatives that they've done with their business over what? 30 plus years? Yeah, almost 50, almost 50 years, and they're just through trial and error.
Alex Verville:
20:26
No one has ever done that before.
Jasmine Nnenna:
20:28
So they've made huge mistakes, but they've also made huge strides to be the role models that they are today. And I'm not saying that everyone's gonna be a Patagonia, but I'm just saying that we can learn, yeah, something that we know about human designs at that. Sixth line is the role model. We can always learn from the exemplars and the role models around us and and see, oh, what are they doing, and then and then use that as an introduction to what we can do on on the scale and and at the Pace that we can, as a solopreneur or an entrepreneur, with a small team, it's possible. I don't think that everyone needs to make the same mistakes. No, I think that we can learn from the people around us. That's typical third line stuff. You don't have to, you know fall. So in season one, the focus is really learning about you, learning about what you like, learning about what you want to offer, and then just trying things, like if you're a tarot reader, you know trying who you want to work with. You want to work with parents, do you want to work with entrepreneurs? Do you want to work with artists? Do you want to work with I don't know? But you're trying a bunch of these different things To see what you like instead of sacrificing and compromising for the highest bidder. Yeah you know it's about you learning about you, but some of the main obstacles here Is that you don't know what your gifts are, and so you're just running in circles Trying to be like everyone else, seeing that all that person got a thousand Comments. Okay, that's what I should do in my social media too. Don't worry about social media right now. Don't worry about those things. Yeah, worry about getting to know you and understanding your personal baseline. That will allow you to make quantum leaps. Later on, that other people will be able to even understand how you did that, because you're tending to your small garden with care, and so in this season, you're probably thinking, well, how am I supposed to make money? Well, you either have a bridge job, a bridge offer or a bridge business, and we're gonna have an episode or it might already be out at this point yeah about bridge businesses and what the purpose and the role of that is and how you can create one and all those different things. Like I said, money is one of you the easiest forms of success. So don't worry so much about making money here, because you're thinking about the long-term gain, not just the short-term gain. So here the obstacles are, like I said, not knowing what your gifts are, not knowing what kind of data to collect, burnout, trying too many things at once and then forcing your business to support you financially before it has matured, which was our biggest mistake I would never make a damn I would never wish upon anyone to experience what we experienced with two kids. I will absolutely continue to advocate for not leaving your job or shifting to a job that reflects more of the direction you wanna go into creating a bridge offer or starting a bridge business while you're figuring out what you want your purpose-driven business to really reflect and what that mission is, because that needs time to tend to and, yeah, we've been tending to it now for years. But, holy cow, I would do it a lot differently If I knew what I know now. Then I would absolutely follow the seven-year cycle and I would just take that as a deep relief, like, okay, there's no pressure, there's no rush. To connect with Air Society's exclusive content on slow business, self-awareness and spirituality, subscribe to our newsletter and to become a more nourished entrepreneur, building a business that is both prosperous and purposeful. Join us inside of Air Society's T-House. Let's go into season two. So season two is about a signature offer or a signature roadmap. This is another thing that I wish I knew. When you leave season one of research and development and trying a bunch of things and seeing which things work and which things don't, you're gonna get to a point where, oh, okay, something's working here Like I'm liking this, other people are liking receiving this from me. I like the flow of this, and this is when you can start to see momentum and the model or the structure of your business start to take shape. It's typically years three and four, and this is when I would invite entrepreneurs to design a signature offer or a signature product, something that you want to be known for. What do you want to be known for? Like? What's the experience? What's the product, what's the offer you want to be known for? And the best way to create this is to have all the data, accumulate all the data from season one, all the things that you tried, all the money that you made, all the offers that you offered, all the marketing that you did blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Lay everything out and then start to inquire, start to like, take note and decode that data. And once you decode that data, it will lead you into, ah, the shining signature offer, or I call it also a signature roadmap. For people like me who are like, oh my God, I can't just offer one thing. So a roadmap makes so much more sense where, let's say, you have three offers and they're all touching each other or talking to each other in a very cohesive and harmonious way. For example, you have a free offer and then you have a lower price tiered offer and then you have a higher price tier offer. That's a signature roadmap that all of the people that come to you may go through all three. They may go through two, they may go through one, but at least there's different touch points. So the roadmap is really for entrepreneurs that like having multiple touch points or like to create multiple arenas for people to connect with them, whereas a signature offer is for an entrepreneur. That's just like I love what I do and I really only wanna do this one thing and support people in this one way. But either direction, the essence is still the same. You have your clarified message and possibly even the mission, and you're ready to take a stand. You're ready to take up space, you're ready to move more purpose and more direction and more yang and more oomph. This is when we start focusing on is our offer profitable? Whereas in season one we're asking is it viable? Viability is more like is it gonna survive on this earth, like this little baby seedling? Whereas in season two it's like okay, what are my expenses versus my income? And then seeing what the profit is in the middle, and it's a really exciting season. This is one of my favorite seasons to work with entrepreneurs because it's like, wow, we get to ID8 on marketing channels, we get to ID8 on the actual business model, the profit model. We get to ID8 on prices. It's a really fun place because you're just more confident. But some of the obstacles here, like we said, is how do you decode the data to create a cohesive offer and process? How do you uncover your brand voice? How do you simplify your business model? How do you actually design an offer that's profitable? So those are some things to think about.
Alex Verville:
28:08
Yeah, I think also you said like getting the word out and being seen, so like deciding which mediums really resonate with me and like how do I want?
Jasmine Nnenna:
28:17
to bring, like you said, that brand voice to everyone to the right place, not just starting a podcast, because everyone's starting a podcast, right exactly?
Alex Verville:
28:26
Yeah, it's really being intentional.
Jasmine Nnenna:
28:28
Intentional. Yeah, Exactly, yeah, exactly.
Alex Verville:
28:30
So because I think you mentioned in the from the previous episode when we were talking about burnout, like one of the main reasons that you said like burnout can happen is through service, the time or the medium. I just thought that was really an important point. Yeah, yeah, I like that. I knew I started from literally weeks ago when we did episode one about burnout and I didn't know where it was like come in, but I just remember.
Jasmine Nnenna:
28:59
There's so many different places that we should be looking in our business when things are not going the way that we want them to go. There's so many places we can poke and prod and see what's lurking beneath so that we can experience what we wanna experience. Season three is scaling. You know the season of scaling. I said that with contempt, but I just think it's funny, because everyone's always talking about scaling 10X your business and it's like, okay, let's have this conversation right now. Not every business wants to scale. Not every business wants to grow to some high heights, and that's okay. But if you are an entrepreneur that wants to scale, then what are the deeper conversations and considerations that we need to be talking about? So in season three, which is typically years five and six and I just wanna remind you that the years can differ you can spend four years in the signature season two, you can spend three years in. R&D, you know, or like Dyson did, they spent 15 years in R&D. So don't get stuck on. Oh, I've been in business for six years. I need to be in the scaling season. It's not about that. It's about listening to the essence of each season and orienting yourself and what the mission of your business is. If you are a solopreneur that has no desire to ever scale, it's like, then don't worry about season three. Use this season as really doubling down. That's essentially what season three is about.
Alex Verville:
30:37
It's about doubling down, doubling down that signature offer or signature roadmap from season two.
Jasmine Nnenna:
30:43
No for sure, Because in season three it's you caught a stride Like. You have momentum here, you have customers and clients that trust you and now you start to notice, maybe, the beginnings of biodiversity forming in your business. And when I say biodiversity, I mean there's a lot of invitations here for making complimentary offers or complimentary experiences or collaborating with other brands or cross pollinating. Yeah, cross pollinating with other businesses and creating communities that really stand and advocate for that shared mission or that shared goal. And you don't have to do this, like I said, but in this season, if you are looking to sustainably scale and or sustainably grow, because there is a difference you're looking at systems. You're also looking at what's breaking. You're looking at how you can come up with innovative and efficient solutions on how to address them. That doesn't always require human, a human resource, like human energy, because we live in a tech age and a lot of things can be systemized and automated, but we don't want to lose the human touch, because that's one of the main obstacles here, Is how do we remain profitable and in high integrity with our quality or product? So a lot of times, what I've seen and what I've read is that companies will grow and they will start to cut corners, whether that comes to the human customer service, intimacy, touch, or whether that comes to the quality of the product or the service. So they'll keep the price the same or sometimes they'll even increase the price, while the standard of the business or the brand decreases. Don't do that. Don't do that. Let's don't do it. You don't want to be that example.
Alex Verville:
32:42
No, it's true. It's true because actually that goes back to like what? To me, the main question that you proposed in the seven year cycle of business article was is it possible to build a financially successful business while staying true to ethics, values and well-being?
Jasmine Nnenna:
32:55
at every stage, at every stage, absolutely. There's not one part of me that backs down from that thesis. I think that is 100% possible. But I also think that it requires a deep tending, a deep care, and you need time, like don't let anybody rush you, let people pass you by, because they don't know what you're building. Only you know that and if you're committing to this type of business, this is I always say it's a slow burn. But slow doesn't have to be. Oh, I'm so painstaking, like it can be slow as smooth and smooth as fast. And you know, slow eventually becomes super fast. While you think everyone's like passing you by One year, you just are just like making millions of dollars and everyone's like, how the hell did you do that? It's like, oh, you didn't see all the years that I was just like, you know, doing it small, small, small, small, raising, raising, raising. And then you have this like explosion and everyone's just looking at you like what happened? It's like I focused on myself, then I focused on my business and those two things together created this third entity, or this third relationship, where now I have this exemplar of a business, that I can be a luminary in. Which is really cool, and I think that that's where we should all strive to be, even if it's not in the numbers. It doesn't have to be in the metrics of you're a millionaire or you did six figures. I don't think that that's what makes a luminary or an exemplar. It doesn't matter what the metrics are. It's really about the energy behind it, the intention behind it.
Alex Verville:
34:45
How authentic the expression is. Like we talked about last episode, the not self expression. It's like what is the authentic expression and that is what will perverberate.
Jasmine Nnenna:
34:58
So some of the main obstacles here continue that. The continued main obstacles are knowing what to look for when hiring, understanding how to renew the bond with your audience and their needs, and possibly getting funding and investing ready, depending on how big you want to go and what you need a cash injection for. Obviously, creating a bridge offer in this season would be great to get a cash injection, because that's the purpose of bridge offers and bridge businesses is really about the cash injection. But if we're talking about, let's say, you have a product, you have a skincare product, and you need a huge cash injection to work with a different laboratory or to get new packaging or whatever the thing may be is, how can you do that in a way that protects the equity of your business? Instead of selling away shares to maybe non aligning investors? What are some other funding avenues that you can take, whether that be crowdfunding from your audience, like Kristi Don did when they wanted to expand into the regenerative farm to closet model they? reached out to their audience and asked them if they want to be part of the movement or taking what we're calling equity protection funding on the funding side, whether that's private funding, private investment, whether that's I mean, there's so many ways to get money. There's so many ways to get money you don't have to sell out in any way that's not aligned to you to do so. So those are the kind of obstacles that you would be walking through in season three and then finally in season four, which is so funny to start to see this appear in my reality, my lived reality, because I hadn't known a lot of founders or entrepreneurs in season four, which typically happens around the seven year mark in business, and this season is about stepping back. Now I have actually seen entrepreneurs and founders stepping back in year seven because of burnout, not because they're ready to pivot, or they want a new change of pace, or it's almost like they're being forced to step back, and that's not what I want for anyone. I want year seven to be like a celebratory moment a moment where you get the cake out, you're blowing out the candles and you're making new intentions for a new seven year cycle. So it's just been really interesting to see that dynamic play out, that the seven years comes and people are like, oh my God, I'm so tired and I don't think I could take another day of this. Seven years in season four, the seven years you've ultimately built a machine which is a huge accomplishment. It's like whoa holy cow. This is pretty cool, but if you haven't been focusing on your health or your wellbeing or your spiritual expansion throughout these years, you will be in deep burnout and you're not going to be available for the high level decisions that are coming in this year, which is do we triple down and go back to year one and maybe have some of that scrappy energy in our current business, or do we begin serial entrepreneurship? Do we begin the serial entrepreneurship journey, which is to create a new brand, to create a new business? If you don't have the energy for that, or if you haven't been taking care of yourself, you're not going to have the energy to make a decision that that really reflects how much you've been through, how many seasons you've walked through. This season is really about understanding that, yeah, we might want to expand, but we also might want to rest. What are our goals now? So, if you have a team, this is including the team in the next seven-year cycle in the next step or the evolutionary vision of the business and the brand, and so some of the main obstacles that are happening here is not having a strong and harmonious team dynamic, especially in your leadership team, because that's something that you would have touched on in season three, like hiring a strong leadership team to really hold the business together. Feeling disconnected from your core Y from season one I mean, this is seven years later. You're a new person. Have you allowed that to show in your business, or does everyone still expect you to be the same person as season one, year one? So there's a lot of things to think about during the seven-year business cycle, but I think the most exciting thing for me is to know that I'm not in any rush and I can stay in any Season that I want to for however long I deem is Healthy for the business. Right? No one's gonna make that decision for me and no one's gonna rush me. Yeah, and if I'm not healthy in any season, I'm the one that needs to make the necessary adjustments and the necessary changes.
Alex Verville:
40:04
Yeah, no, absolutely. Oh, so many things. I'm on LinkedIn all the time, so, after just listening to this and being present for you, like in the moment, I'm just thinking about all the founders and businesses that I see in work with, even at rice cap, like I know, daily basis, and just thinking like, oh, is it forced? Are we, are they follow? Are we following some paradigm version of like, where we Think we should be, and then acting in that like? as not self and and, and then, and then that, extrapolating as a as our business you know and thinking that that's the business.
Jasmine Nnenna:
40:42
Yeah thinking that that's the mode I. I especially Feel saddened when I see great ideas be pummeled by Society's pacing yes instead of you understanding what is my pacing as you know your human design type, what is my pacing as my human design authority? And then yeah if I want to follow this, the safety of the seven-year business cycle and model.
Alex Verville:
41:08
Yeah.
Jasmine Nnenna:
41:09
Where am I actually at in?
Alex Verville:
41:10
that yeah, yeah, I mean, one of the things you said that I think is just like the best metaphor for it is Entrepreneurship is a marathon, it's not a sprint. And then even like when you said season three, you found your stride, you know is like really where you're right. It's probably if you're I actually have ran a marathon. Yeah, it was, I did my first one, so I wouldn't say I ever found my stride. It was just like, can I survive? But I'm sure for people who run a lot of marathons it's like that 70 mile, like 15 to like 24, you know before the end like you said, you're just like, yeah, I'm just striding, and yes, well, I have just ran, you know 17 miles, but it's not, I'm not, I'm good, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Jasmine Nnenna:
41:51
So it's like where is your stride as an entrepreneur Exactly?
Alex Verville:
41:55
Where is it? Yeah?
Jasmine Nnenna:
41:56
what is your pace? What is you, what is your pace? You know everyone's always like, oh, four minute mile, or right, whatever the the.
Alex Verville:
42:07
Olympic standard.
Jasmine Nnenna:
42:09
The Olympic standard exactly but come on, though, I am very happy to walk a mile. Yeah, I have no desire for a four minute mile, because I I know my own personal goals is that I want to build Generational stability. That's something I've always wanted. That's always been a personal goal of mine. Yeah, so I don't ever want to grow too fast, grow too slow. You know, it's always that middle path, and so you have to ask yourself that, as an entrepreneur, it's like what is my personal goal and entrepreneurship Is it to create? Do I just want to express Okay, do I want to do that in the realm of entrepreneurship and business, or can I do that in another realm?
Alex Verville:
42:49
Yeah.
Jasmine Nnenna:
42:50
Do I want to be an entrepreneur? Do I want to come up with innovative solutions to collective or individual problems? How long do I even see myself doing that? Do I want to work with others? Do I want to be a solopreneur for the rest of my career? It's not always oh you hire or because you hire. That's another metric of wealth, right?
Alex Verville:
43:12
Yes, it's not. We have on our team exactly.
Jasmine Nnenna:
43:15
Yeah, you could have, you know, 20 people on your team and not be profitable. Yeah and so then you're walking around being like, oh, we have a 20-person team, but you are not making profit. It's it's really bizarre, and I think it's something that we have to check in with at every single quarter. Yeah, like I'm talking about this in in years, but really, down to the minutia, it's all about the quarters Q1 to Q4 and Allowing the mission yes to change, allowing the direction to change, even if it doesn't fit with the initial Meeting that we had January 1.
Alex Verville:
43:55
Yeah, exactly Exactly. And you keep saying, like you know, I love that you said like what are my goals, what is my stride, what is my pace? Like where, like within our realm of Like tea house and what we do at era, like what's something that people you know can do to help figure that out?
Jasmine Nnenna:
44:15
Mmm, I mean, I know I'm always mentioned this, but it's like really about honesty, turning off everything else and asking yourself, like what are my goals? Like who am I? Who am I? Obviously I'm always going to recommend understanding your human design and like living from the basics of that, your strategy and authority and even your profile. Obviously, we'll have all the resources linked. We have a whole workshop on the seven-year cycle inside of the tea house. We have workshops on the centers, on how to create an offer. We also have the agency now, which is our holistic business development agency, where we actually sit down with entrepreneurs and help orient them what season they're in, based on their mission and their goal, so that they can start to feel a sense of sustainability, like actual inner sustainability, not rushing or trying to find or trying to catch or trying to be in competition with like when you have a business as a reflective of your design, there is no competition. There is no competition, no, exactly at all. Yeah, because there's no one else with your design. There's no one else living out your design in your environment, in your way and your determination, in your centers and your authority, so their business can never look like yours. I think competition is such a falsified, weaponized stream of consciousness that like doesn't need to exist at all. So there's so many ways. I think there's so many resources out there and I'm happy to keep creating them whenever I'm in response, but the the first and foremost thing is like getting silent, turning everything off and maybe even grieving for a minute and being like, oh man, yeah, I've been following this way of doing things because that's maybe what everyone else said that I should do, and now I'm being presented with this new way of doing it where no one is forcing me to do anything. It's all gonna be from a self sovereign choice. Yeah, and I have to take responsibility for that. Am I ready to do that? Yeah and If you're listening to this episode, I think that you are ready.
Alex Verville:
46:34
I think that, yeah, you wouldn't be here, you wouldn't be sure, at least some part of you.
Jasmine Nnenna:
46:37
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Alex Verville:
46:39
Yeah, and that's even if there's been times where I get in places like this and I can only listen to 10 minutes of something absolutely two weeks a month, two months come back and then listen. Ah, okay, now I'm in a place where I can hear that next part, you know. So, yeah, that's okay, it doesn't matter how long it takes, time is on our side.
Jasmine Nnenna:
46:58
Time is on our side when we choose to do business this way. Time is an ally. It allows us to make the material world or the physical world our spiritual work. It's, it's a lot, I mean it's it's a long life and, especially, if you choose to do business in this way, you have a whole community behind you. You have other entrepreneurs that are doing the same thing and that are choosing to scale, and some are not. Some are choosing to Use a seven-year business cycle in their bridge business it. There's so many ways to make it your own. Yeah, it's not a tight, no, it's bespoke. It's absolutely bespoke, it's absolutely unique, it's differentiated. It's differentiated and I think that's Truly one of my desires is to see business Truly differentiated, like actually different. The voice is different, the aesthetic is different, and it doesn't all just look the same, it's not just all the same, it's not just all trying to keep up with. You know, whoever is is the top dog. At the same time, Mmm-hmm or at that time I should say yeah. So that is my little Philosophy. Yeah, the seven-year business cycle, and that's what I'm gonna be following from now until the end, or Until some new thing drops into my yeah lap. So I hope that this episode has been helpful. We do have a quiz that you can take if you're completely Unsure what season you're in, and we'll have that in the show notes so that you can really Orient yourself and start to maybe make the necessary adjustments in your business and with yourself, so you can start to feel a little bit more Joyous and blissed out about being an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is such a fun it's just such a fun game to play and it shouldn't be filled with your stress and with your grief. And you know We've been saying this for a while, but it is. It's a spiritual path. Entrepreneurship is a spiritual path and if you're like us and you're, you want to merge your spiritual expansion with your Material creation. I think this type of entrepreneurship conscious entrepreneurship, holistic business is the way that I found and I'm enjoying doing it.