Listen to the Bees (A Business Strategy)
Let's talk business and why we created The Hive – EDEN's new business tier.
If I could sum up the dilemmas I see spiritual entrepreneurs facing it's these…
Taking on inauthentic energies in business.
Not knowing that what emerges from your naturalness is enough.
Having unclear definitions of success, thing's ‘working’ and more of the like.
There has been a noticeable uprising in this dilemma in the last 1-2 years. More people are offering their work online, AI has entered the chat, the airwaves are filled with clutter, the recession looms, and overstimulation is at an all-time high.
Even with capacity, awareness, and diligence—it's easy to falter.
You see it working this way for that person you respect, and you sacrifice a little bit of your essence to appear more like them.
You watch as this person moving rapidly appears to be succeeding — and you override your natural rhythm, moving with just a bit more haste.
You observe that this person whose work is similar to yours speaks like this and seems to garner much attention from it — and you subtly relinquish the sound of your voice, your song.
You notice that this idea is trendy. "I know about that. I could do that," you think — and without knowing, plant a seed in your garden that takes up just enough space to encroach on the ideas meant for you (you know, the ones that bring you alive).
“If the performer puts herself in the audience, she spoils her performance.”
— Zen saying
This insidious sacrificing may garner you results, and because you have yet to see them before, it proves that the way is a lot louder, more chaotic, and more confusing than you thought. You're not even sure what's natural to you, so why bother figuring it out when this is working.
Maybe it yields nothing. You grow weary and frustrated, starving in the land of empty promises and outlandish claims. This next person with conviction is the one. This next model that worked for everyone else will work for me. You become a hungry ghost, feeding on spiritual-business-fast-food.
Maybe these subtle moments of sacrifice compound, resulting in a dramatic moment of illumination akin to Baba Yaga striking you on the head and yelling, "Wake up child! You've lost yourself!"
We are programmed to believe that success comes from addition. Yet the paradox is that what truly works in a way that honors you and Life as one interdependent being, is found through subtraction.
When you taste this ‘success,' this nectar –– you will remember it. For it is no different from ducklings swimming and northern lights dancing. It has the same face as a wise elders wrinkly smile and a horse deciding to trust you. It smells like Spring lilacs and Summer roses. It tastes like a garden-grown, dirt-stained, home-cooked meal. It glows like honey straight from the comb.
In dissolving that which is not you, you give yourself the best chance at the foundation of generative success – meeting yourself, as you are – endlessly.
In this place, words like success, things ‘working’, and purpose take on wider and vaster meanings than the painstakingly narrow ones we tend to find in the marketplace.
You realize you've been entranced by something that paints a film of 'not enoughness' over your inner and outer landscapes.
There is nothing to do at this altar other than empty yourself of everything you've taken on, become a sacred gardener of what is yours, and sit in the wonder of the way Life has been patiently waiting to move you.
You would think you need patience in this place. But as you unlock the chambers of trust that live in your organs, you find that everything is happening in perfect timing.
Patience is only a virtue when you have lost touch with yourself as nature.
When you've drank from this place's clear and cold spring, what you're about to read will make perfect sense.
Perhaps you find…
• you are pointed in a clearer direction
• your business starts to unfold in a timing that's actually conducive to your wellbeing
• you experience an outward success, in congruence with your whole system, far more simple and peaceful than what you had been experiencing prior
• you don't actually care about things like follower counts, engagement, and target audiences – you care about being a skillful practitioner, creating beauty, and embodiment
• an idea that asks you to take 1, 2, 5+ years to bring it to fruition ends up becoming your truest form of sustenance
• in this season of your life, your sole focus is meant to be parenting—not forcing a business to work. (In your eventual surrender, you find that the great work of parenting was never separate from whatever outer expression your work will one day take next.)
What I know for sure is that everything real and true in your work and in your reality emerges from this quiet oasis.
A pristine landscape that requires you to take great care of it so that it can take great care of you.
From here, it's inevitable that you begin to soften into Life. You take refuge from the exhausting imbalance of I, me, and my. You find solace in experiencing that as much as you impact Life, it impacts you in equal or greater proportion.
Authenticity is a business plan. (And a buzzword.)
In the systems I am trained in, in my relationship to reality, and in EDEN –– authenticity is a whole-body practice that asks us to engage ourselves and live life as we are. It is a pathway into everything from the subtle to the gross: stories, emotion, and meaning. Etheric knots. Our inner wisdom. Psychic gifts that, contrary to popular belief, make us more—not less—human.
We've been sold a lie that what's real and true isn't enough and won't support us. Especially when our definitions of worth, something 'working,' and support are mired in garbage.
The way I work with people in business is no different from any other context. I offer training to help you begin to attune to and engage with the endless subtle conversations happening as your body's nervous system and aura interface with reality.
From here, you learn to create space, engage in what is yours, and inevitably transform.
People hear this, and because of how the marketplace has led so many to believe that success is just around the corner of the next great thing — that this, too, is a great thing that will be a rapid one-and-done.
People try a couple practices and grow frustrated it's not immediately granting them all their wishes.
Dear Ones, there are no outlandish promises here.
This is an ongoing practice that at some point you will realize, will take far more than a lifetime to even scratch the surface of. There will always be more to transform, clear, and become. New pain, desires, and ideas. More of you, less of you.
The paradox is that this is where sustainable joy—as a practice, a skill, and a result—emerges. Joy is not in spite of but because of Life's inevitable tension, contrast, and contradictions. Joy as a space within, not separate from, suffering.
The Hive is both a separate space inside EDEN specifically for business and a dream that has come to fruition with tending and time.
Here, we will take the energy and self-mastery frameworks we learn and practice inside of EDEN and apply them directly to business. It is a space where we can get more specific and hands-on and find shelter in a group of humans devoted to practicing business differently—in tune with Heaven and Earth.
Every month, there will be a Business Class connected to the theme. This is the first time in EDEN I have the fortitude and space to offer an ongoing business curriculum. Previously, I've been able to do this in courses, but to begin building this body of work inside EDEN is a prayer come true.
Every month, there will also be a Business Circle. These have been a part of EDEN for nearly two years, and together we have created a subtle yet significant groove for members to relax into. On these calls there is 1:1 mentoring and energy work practice, group practice, and discussion on all things 'business.' Here is where we laugh at the notion that anything in our work is separate from our work.
There will be a Business Review Circle every other month. These are calls in which a member and I will walk through something in their work (past, present, or future) and 'review it' using frameworks that bring the whole system into the experience—not just the conscious mind. These are akin to 1:1 sessions except with the group energy present, which creates whirlpools of resonance for each person to take part in and receive.
Every other month, there will also be Business Guest Classes in which we hand-select someone to come in and teach/facilitate who embodies the monthly theme and is practicing business in a way that we could all learn from.
Beyond this, The Hive has its own private space and resource library; self-promotion is encouraged, and boundless surprises emerge like sleeping bees in the petals of a flower.
Last and most relevant, you can access everything in EDEN and The Hive for just $122/month (or sign up for seasonal or yearly to receive a discount).
This is intended to be an antidote to high-priced business spaces. We hope to offer similar flows and flavors of value at an accessible price for wherever you are on your business path.
Everyone always says, "I created the thing I wished I had." I don't wish I had something like this. Because then, I wouldn't have been able to create this with such clarity and dignity.
Rather than separating my spiritual studies from business and trying to learn 'how to do' business from others, I had to allow all my esoteric training to forge a remembrance within me that I could apply to business.
I macheted a business path that stepped outside the bounds of what was available. Now, I am doubling back on the path, planting flowers and tending bee hives. (Which, ironically, was exactly what I was doing with my life when the business started.)