Client Lessons: Regenerative Livelihoods with Karryn Olson-Ramanujan
Channel: George Kao
Date: 2018-12-05

Karryn is a client of mine, and specializes in helping people integrate values of sustainability/permaculture into creating viable livelihoods. In this video she offers a framework on how to reflect on year's end and plan forward.

We begin with a few lessons she has learned in building her own business:

Karryn writes: 

"I’m a person who comes from a long and deep background in sustainability, permaculture and dedication to social justice, and I have spent most of my career as an educator, so for most of my life I’ve been “allergic to business as usual.” And rightfully so! I’m still very aware of the impacts of extractive capitalism and speak to that in my work. But my big a-ha was realizing that my mindset about business being the “real b-word” was preventing me from having ways to harvest back adequate forms of energetic exchange for my regenerative work.  And that is the definition of a business model… it lays out how we create & deliver value for our clients, and also “capture” value back. (I think a lot about the power of words, so I use “harvest”.) 

"So, seeing my work as a business has been a big shift, and I saw that without having the tools of entrepreneurship, I and other folks who are passionate about regenerative solutions to today’s myriad problems are not able to fast-track solutions or were getting caught up in burnout—so I dove into studying entrepreneurship, and consistently think about how it can be regenerative."

"Two main lessons I’d share from this: (1) Learning from Ash Maurya’s Lean Startup approach that our “product” as business owners isn’t our service, but our “product” is the business model. Wow! That’s a really different approach! That makes so much sense, because a business model helps us focus on our customers and how we can serve them and reach them to help them address challenges and move forward… this all ties into what activities we choose to do (or not do) as a business to keep our customers and partners happy, the resources we need, revenue and cost structures. Of course we need to think all that through in order to sustain our endeavor! But it turns out this is a huge mistake lots of people make, not just folks who are “allergic” to biz as usual.

 "Also, “Love the problem, not your idea” was super helpful. Since I’ve worked as an educator for so long, I was used to delivering a curriculum… super valuable content, but driven by what the educator believes the learner needs to know. That’s really different from delivering content that first and foremost aims to help clients remove pain points or address desired gains. For my context, I’ve extended that to not falling in love with our modality (permaculture, forest bathing, etc) or a business structure (non-profit, Bcorp, cooperative, etc because we feel they are more “ethical” ways to structure our business)…   So when we fall in love with any of those we spend a lot of time building out our awesome thing without knowing if there are paying customers  or donors for it! Been there, done that!  For example, there is no need to, as I call it, “evangelize” (“Permavangelizing” is when we feel like if folks just knew permaculture we could heal ecosystems and communities). First of all, that’s a problematic approach, but the point here is that if we drop the attachment to our idea, and instead listen to what folks are saying keeps them awake at night, and design our niche of regenerative services around that, who cares what we call it? Just get the solutions out there deeply serving folks.

❦

Karryn Olson-Ramanujan supports folks who are passionate about Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share to discern their livelihood paths and design “Abundance Models” so that they can fast-track regenerative solutions to today’s pressing problems.

She says this about her current offering:

"Do you know someone who wishes for their life's path to be in service to co-creating a regenerative future for all? And they are struggling to find their way, and that’s painful because they really want to play their role in the Great Turning?

The Pathfinders program provides a process and a community that over three months expedites you along the path to service—by identifying the unique, highest contribution that only you can make. We grow into new levels of leadership by taping into Earth- and Source-wisdom, and co-creating Beloved Community so that we can mutually encourage and fast-track regenerative solutions. We balance deep inner work with rational analysis so you can better discern which paths to follow. 

A small, diverse cohort of 15 folks will start the Pathfinders program on December 13. There’s an “early bird” rate for folks who sign up before December 5."

Connect with Karryn and her work here:

https://regenepreneurs.com

Regenepreneurs