This is a useful framework for sure, thanks for laying out your brain map on this. I came to very similar conclusions in my first business years ago and made adjustments accordingly. I created writings and videos around personal transformation that could lead to societal transformation back in 2009. But by 2012 I decided the message wasn't really 'sticking' with where culture was focused. I made an adjustment that pushed 'the message' into the background and instead focused on more culturally popular ideas and it exploded to become in the top 1000 websites in the world and a multi-million a year in revenue business. I still heard stories from thousands of people that our work helps 'change their lives,' but I was never really sure by how much as a result of how we changed our business appearance.
That said, so many topics we spoke about on the internet years ago (as they were more so in books prior) are huge mainstream today, so maybe seeding ideas was the larger purpose. Who knows.
Truth is though, I got a bit bored and unfulfilled by it after many years and I craved having an outlet for my deeper ideas.
Conscious capitalism is an interesting idea too. I was interviewed for a film called Prosperity, all about conscious capitalism, and while I agree with the general idea of it all, it still feels like not much more than learning to make the most of the systemic moment we are in now (which is very useful), but I still think we need to forefront whole systems re-design as a discussion.
We all have to survive, and money is crucial in that conversation. Being able to serve others in a meaningful way and try and be 'conscious' in our business is great, but having been in the 'conscious business' space for 15 years, most of my 'competitors' embrace appearances of being 'conscious', but still use the same old tactics of capturing attention at all costs. I'm not trying to call others out here as much as bring up the idea of how powerful the incentive structures are within our existing system.
It's a tough balance to strike, and if you don't seek to strike it too, you struggle. I don't mean to say it's not possible, but market dynamics are at play nonetheless.
Thanks for giving an opportunity to explore this subject more.
Joe - thank you for this incredibly thoughtful commentary and your own story. It's definitely the rub. I feel it with my own content where on things like Youtube you have to make thumbnails showing incredibly expressive faces and catchy headlines to have anyone even engage in your work. I went on tiktok for an hour recently to watch the top spirituality content and it was all about contacting aliens, developing special abilities, or prophecy. It can be disenchanting. At the same time, I do think more and more people are seeing through this and there is an opportunity.
One of my friends is a very conscious person and a top youtuber w/ millions of followers. The way he thinks about it, is like a book. He orients the cover to more what people will like, but pours his heart and soul into the pages. Not 100% ideal, but seems to work for him. Def a tightrope, and as creators it all comes back to the purity of our intent w/ these things.
Thanks again, I am glad to have connected on here and just subscribed to your stuff : )
It took me a second but I recognize you now from CE. Gladly subscribed!
"I still think we need to forefront whole systems re-design as a discussion." This is agreed and here are my unsolicited 2 cents worth. :)
We will have to deliberately work towards this at first but it will only be a bandaid until a complete evolutionary leap is made.
The problem is, in my opinion, that all the frameworks of society (including capitalism) are created by and support egoic-state consciousness (based in the paradigm of separation which supports unequal power and is at the same time unsustainable in nature) which humanity has been in for the last several thousand years.
Society directly reflects the consciousness of its citizens.
But, I believe as I think Scott does, that consciousness is shifting out of ego and into something more expanded—a "spiritual" state where everything is perceived as holistic and connected.
And once a new condition of consciousness is set as the foundation, all of society must also shift to reflect it. At that time, it won't be forced, it will just organically begin to transform to maintain equilibrium.
The problem is how to navigate this liminal phase or twilight zone between paradigms. I have a feeling nothing will be easy until everything is eventually effortless.
I'd be glad to participate in a lumascape of consciousness related technologies as already planning to do that to get myself further involved! Second, I think this is very well written and only have one discrete thought to add. One of the lessons from psychedelics and meditation for me is that everyone is out there living their own story and entitled to their own story. That means that a way to think about conscious capitalism is to start trend spotting for storylines and ideas that people are seeking to have, and then using a framework that matches their currently held beliefs to give them the easiest way to achieve it. Similar to what you describe Eckhart Tolle as.
I think it'd be a lot of fun, to start a group brainstorming how to apply even standard market segmentation into things like "blue collar workers in the northeast are seeking a reinvention from old patterns of work from their parents, and looking for something that helps them transform their sense of identity," to try to capture ideas here. Thoughts?
Thanks David! And I really like this concept you propose. It makes me think more granularly about archetypes/stories within different phases of consciousness.
Great article and just joined the Pawa chat group you mentioned. Thank you for sharing! I see lots of solopreneur women launching spiritual/consciousness expanding coaching businesses, or people trying to sell microdose programs, as if they were weightloss diets, but most of the visions are small and time-based and sometimes sus.
I love your broader exploration.
I sometimes wish the social media platforms I use would actually use all the insights they’re mining from me to tell me some potentially psychologically beneficial advice... like “you’re easily swayed by this kind of argument, watch out.” Or “you’re high on negative emotion, you should try XYZ to find more joy.”
There is totally a market for the Noom version of BetterHelp also, like an automated, self-guided digital coach/therapist. Because let’s face it, many human therapists/gurus aren’t the best.
Though of course this could go terribly in the wrong direction and the apps could just convince you to believe propaganda or harmful ideas. Not sure how you prevent that, especially now that we have easily customizable large language chat bots.
I do think there is a huge opportunity to make positive media consumption easier then it is today. The notion of it being adaptive and learning is a really cool idea. I recently found this company that's doing pretty interesting stuff with helping children learn how to use media and life skills more responsibly. The talk with the founder on the site is cool https://behumane.co/about/
Thank you for this article! Very well written. I am currently searching for an investor who has an interest in the field of consciousness, so I appreciate your take on this. I love what you wrote “As I write this I know the right opportunity to direct all my energy too will emerge in perfect timing if I just continue to follow my inner guidance and earnestly pursue the things that give me energy.” I completely agree. Every day I tune in and ask my "team" what the best steps to take are that day. I am being proactive but all my actions are intentional and guided and I trust I will connect with the right person who believes in and wants to help promote our mission
Great article, Scott. Definitely gave me lots to think about. I have a growing sense of urgency about how out of harmony humanity's become with the world. The environment, yes, but also a hundred other things. I'm feeling a real pull to try and do my part to teach others these sorts of concepts. Thank you for doing your part!! Have a great week!!
Hey Scott, thanks for putting this together. A friend shared it with me, and we are both super excited to know other people are also thinking about this. As I was reading your post and the comments, I got goosebumps! This could be big in terms of impact on people's lives and an excellent biz opportunity.
As a founder, I have gone through the journey of looking for answers in the external world to realize then that they lie within. The major challenge I see here is taking people through that journey between unawareness (experimental Inspiration) and a life of expanded consciousness.
There are many answers, and it is a great opportunity for doers and creatives like us to see what is possible and build it. I got the feeling that this post may be the spark of something huge, and I want to be part of it :)
Manuel! Thanks so much for your support and enthusiasm. I agree there is so much opportunities to help with this shift and my hope here is to provide a broad thinking matrix of hone we can all collectively hone in on parts that resonate with us as creatives and entrepreneurs. Sending you a note separately.
"My belief is that consciousness’s desire is to expand and eventually experience or realize itself while continuing to expand." I completely agree! It's an absolutely inspiring, life-changing understanding once people can get to that point.
I would also say those who have themselves become more expanded in consciousness do need to help others get there. Not easy, though. This was exciting for me to see you publish this because along with high importance comes relatively high difficulty (or a lot). I'm excited to see continued thoughts about this—one of these days I'd like to make some money myself, you know. :)
I think the helping others emerges naturally depending on where you're at. There's a genuine desire to contribute and serve that arises at some point in the heart opening.
Money no doubt is a useful tool. Keep doing what you love and it will come. Prob helps to remove any bad programming around it. I had a lot of it.
I admit the bad programming and still am at a loss for why. But, I have had some breakthroughs just recently; it feels like breaking the last bit of the log jam free and things in all areas (not necessarily $ but other things of value) have been flowing more than ever. You're right, it will come. And it's not the primary concern.
First of all, this piece is amazing. We need more and more articles putting together consciousness work with entrepreneurship. Many thanks! 👏
I have an inquiry.
I like when you say “As I write this I know the right opportunity to direct all my energy too will emerge in perfect timing if I just continue to follow my inner guidance and earnestly pursue the things that give me energy.”
I am doing the same. Trusting that something will emerge if I keep going towards what feels right. But I’m struggling a bit with its operationalisation.
My approach is: 1. to look for a foundational job in the area where my expertise lies (tech product management), 2. as I develop towards the areas where my heart shines (coaching, writing here).
However, I would rather like to bridge these two worlds and I’m struggling to find opportunities or frameworks to do that. So as to support people in the self development, while leveraging my product skills.
Would you have any framework to share? Or, maybe, just your thought process on the matter?
This is a useful framework for sure, thanks for laying out your brain map on this. I came to very similar conclusions in my first business years ago and made adjustments accordingly. I created writings and videos around personal transformation that could lead to societal transformation back in 2009. But by 2012 I decided the message wasn't really 'sticking' with where culture was focused. I made an adjustment that pushed 'the message' into the background and instead focused on more culturally popular ideas and it exploded to become in the top 1000 websites in the world and a multi-million a year in revenue business. I still heard stories from thousands of people that our work helps 'change their lives,' but I was never really sure by how much as a result of how we changed our business appearance.
That said, so many topics we spoke about on the internet years ago (as they were more so in books prior) are huge mainstream today, so maybe seeding ideas was the larger purpose. Who knows.
Truth is though, I got a bit bored and unfulfilled by it after many years and I craved having an outlet for my deeper ideas.
Conscious capitalism is an interesting idea too. I was interviewed for a film called Prosperity, all about conscious capitalism, and while I agree with the general idea of it all, it still feels like not much more than learning to make the most of the systemic moment we are in now (which is very useful), but I still think we need to forefront whole systems re-design as a discussion.
We all have to survive, and money is crucial in that conversation. Being able to serve others in a meaningful way and try and be 'conscious' in our business is great, but having been in the 'conscious business' space for 15 years, most of my 'competitors' embrace appearances of being 'conscious', but still use the same old tactics of capturing attention at all costs. I'm not trying to call others out here as much as bring up the idea of how powerful the incentive structures are within our existing system.
It's a tough balance to strike, and if you don't seek to strike it too, you struggle. I don't mean to say it's not possible, but market dynamics are at play nonetheless.
Thanks for giving an opportunity to explore this subject more.
Joe - thank you for this incredibly thoughtful commentary and your own story. It's definitely the rub. I feel it with my own content where on things like Youtube you have to make thumbnails showing incredibly expressive faces and catchy headlines to have anyone even engage in your work. I went on tiktok for an hour recently to watch the top spirituality content and it was all about contacting aliens, developing special abilities, or prophecy. It can be disenchanting. At the same time, I do think more and more people are seeing through this and there is an opportunity.
One of my friends is a very conscious person and a top youtuber w/ millions of followers. The way he thinks about it, is like a book. He orients the cover to more what people will like, but pours his heart and soul into the pages. Not 100% ideal, but seems to work for him. Def a tightrope, and as creators it all comes back to the purity of our intent w/ these things.
Thanks again, I am glad to have connected on here and just subscribed to your stuff : )
It took me a second but I recognize you now from CE. Gladly subscribed!
"I still think we need to forefront whole systems re-design as a discussion." This is agreed and here are my unsolicited 2 cents worth. :)
We will have to deliberately work towards this at first but it will only be a bandaid until a complete evolutionary leap is made.
The problem is, in my opinion, that all the frameworks of society (including capitalism) are created by and support egoic-state consciousness (based in the paradigm of separation which supports unequal power and is at the same time unsustainable in nature) which humanity has been in for the last several thousand years.
Society directly reflects the consciousness of its citizens.
But, I believe as I think Scott does, that consciousness is shifting out of ego and into something more expanded—a "spiritual" state where everything is perceived as holistic and connected.
And once a new condition of consciousness is set as the foundation, all of society must also shift to reflect it. At that time, it won't be forced, it will just organically begin to transform to maintain equilibrium.
The problem is how to navigate this liminal phase or twilight zone between paradigms. I have a feeling nothing will be easy until everything is eventually effortless.
I'd be glad to participate in a lumascape of consciousness related technologies as already planning to do that to get myself further involved! Second, I think this is very well written and only have one discrete thought to add. One of the lessons from psychedelics and meditation for me is that everyone is out there living their own story and entitled to their own story. That means that a way to think about conscious capitalism is to start trend spotting for storylines and ideas that people are seeking to have, and then using a framework that matches their currently held beliefs to give them the easiest way to achieve it. Similar to what you describe Eckhart Tolle as.
I think it'd be a lot of fun, to start a group brainstorming how to apply even standard market segmentation into things like "blue collar workers in the northeast are seeking a reinvention from old patterns of work from their parents, and looking for something that helps them transform their sense of identity," to try to capture ideas here. Thoughts?
Thanks David! And I really like this concept you propose. It makes me think more granularly about archetypes/stories within different phases of consciousness.
Going to ping you on twitter
Love this, beautifully written and completely resonates:)
Thanks Sophie! I appreciate you reading and it's nice to know that others out there have similar thoughts : )
Great article and just joined the Pawa chat group you mentioned. Thank you for sharing! I see lots of solopreneur women launching spiritual/consciousness expanding coaching businesses, or people trying to sell microdose programs, as if they were weightloss diets, but most of the visions are small and time-based and sometimes sus.
I love your broader exploration.
I sometimes wish the social media platforms I use would actually use all the insights they’re mining from me to tell me some potentially psychologically beneficial advice... like “you’re easily swayed by this kind of argument, watch out.” Or “you’re high on negative emotion, you should try XYZ to find more joy.”
There is totally a market for the Noom version of BetterHelp also, like an automated, self-guided digital coach/therapist. Because let’s face it, many human therapists/gurus aren’t the best.
Though of course this could go terribly in the wrong direction and the apps could just convince you to believe propaganda or harmful ideas. Not sure how you prevent that, especially now that we have easily customizable large language chat bots.
Thanks Charlotte!
I do think there is a huge opportunity to make positive media consumption easier then it is today. The notion of it being adaptive and learning is a really cool idea. I recently found this company that's doing pretty interesting stuff with helping children learn how to use media and life skills more responsibly. The talk with the founder on the site is cool https://behumane.co/about/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYjnQIa76qk&ab_channel=BeHuman%28e%29
Cool! I’ll check that out!
Thank you for this article! Very well written. I am currently searching for an investor who has an interest in the field of consciousness, so I appreciate your take on this. I love what you wrote “As I write this I know the right opportunity to direct all my energy too will emerge in perfect timing if I just continue to follow my inner guidance and earnestly pursue the things that give me energy.” I completely agree. Every day I tune in and ask my "team" what the best steps to take are that day. I am being proactive but all my actions are intentional and guided and I trust I will connect with the right person who believes in and wants to help promote our mission
Thanks Linda! Our inner wisdom team knows what's up! When we learn to align to it, magic unfolds. Cool to hear you're on a similar path : )
Great article, Scott. Definitely gave me lots to think about. I have a growing sense of urgency about how out of harmony humanity's become with the world. The environment, yes, but also a hundred other things. I'm feeling a real pull to try and do my part to teach others these sorts of concepts. Thank you for doing your part!! Have a great week!!
Wonderful to hear Bodhi. Excited to see what you create in the world!
Hey Scott, thanks for putting this together. A friend shared it with me, and we are both super excited to know other people are also thinking about this. As I was reading your post and the comments, I got goosebumps! This could be big in terms of impact on people's lives and an excellent biz opportunity.
As a founder, I have gone through the journey of looking for answers in the external world to realize then that they lie within. The major challenge I see here is taking people through that journey between unawareness (experimental Inspiration) and a life of expanded consciousness.
There are many answers, and it is a great opportunity for doers and creatives like us to see what is possible and build it. I got the feeling that this post may be the spark of something huge, and I want to be part of it :)
Manuel! Thanks so much for your support and enthusiasm. I agree there is so much opportunities to help with this shift and my hope here is to provide a broad thinking matrix of hone we can all collectively hone in on parts that resonate with us as creatives and entrepreneurs. Sending you a note separately.
thanks for linking into our PAUA community! We changed the name from PAWA to PAUA :)
My pleasure! Fixed : )
"My belief is that consciousness’s desire is to expand and eventually experience or realize itself while continuing to expand." I completely agree! It's an absolutely inspiring, life-changing understanding once people can get to that point.
I would also say those who have themselves become more expanded in consciousness do need to help others get there. Not easy, though. This was exciting for me to see you publish this because along with high importance comes relatively high difficulty (or a lot). I'm excited to see continued thoughts about this—one of these days I'd like to make some money myself, you know. :)
Aaron
Thanks man, appreciate your support as always.
I think the helping others emerges naturally depending on where you're at. There's a genuine desire to contribute and serve that arises at some point in the heart opening.
Money no doubt is a useful tool. Keep doing what you love and it will come. Prob helps to remove any bad programming around it. I had a lot of it.
I admit the bad programming and still am at a loss for why. But, I have had some breakthroughs just recently; it feels like breaking the last bit of the log jam free and things in all areas (not necessarily $ but other things of value) have been flowing more than ever. You're right, it will come. And it's not the primary concern.
I haven't read this book, but seems interesting: https://www.amazon.com/Abundance-Wealth-Deepak-Chopra-MD/dp/0593233794
I like Tara Springett's ideas on growing spiritually and cultivating abundance which are based on Tibetan Buddhist principles https://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Manifesting-Tibetan-Buddhist-Fulfilling/dp/1506162703/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=advanced+manifesting&qid=1675814266&s=books&sprefix=advanced+mani%2Cstripbooks%2C104&sr=1-4
First of all, this piece is amazing. We need more and more articles putting together consciousness work with entrepreneurship. Many thanks! 👏
I have an inquiry.
I like when you say “As I write this I know the right opportunity to direct all my energy too will emerge in perfect timing if I just continue to follow my inner guidance and earnestly pursue the things that give me energy.”
I am doing the same. Trusting that something will emerge if I keep going towards what feels right. But I’m struggling a bit with its operationalisation.
My approach is: 1. to look for a foundational job in the area where my expertise lies (tech product management), 2. as I develop towards the areas where my heart shines (coaching, writing here).
However, I would rather like to bridge these two worlds and I’m struggling to find opportunities or frameworks to do that. So as to support people in the self development, while leveraging my product skills.
Would you have any framework to share? Or, maybe, just your thought process on the matter?