Welcome to the Founders Series, where every Monday we spotlight an inspiring founder and the story behind their work.
This interview with Jasmine Nnenna originally appeared in The Retreat print edition, Issue No. 7 (Exploration & Evolution, December 2023). To read this interview (and more) in its intended. analog form, go here.
In this interview, we explore:
How exploration led Jas to uncover her purpose
A breakdown of each Human Design type and their ideal approach to business
The biggest reason why a business doesn’t work out
Whether we’re meant to have one purpose or many
Jas’s many evolutions: motherhood, moving across the world, and moving on from a business
Grieving an old identity and embracing what’s next
Finding newness in a long-term relationship
The future of business and conscious leadership
How better sleep can help you make more money
Jas’s nighttime routine and “energy fasts”
Her advice for letting go of a business with grace
How to befriend the material world while working in the spiritual space
Wisdom for those in their Saturn return
Current reads, watches, and listens
Founder of the Week: Jasmine Nnenna
Jasmine Nnenna is a woman after my own heart. The Bali-based polymath writes, podcasts, mothers, and hosts a digital oasis for entrepreneurs, all while sipping tasteful teas and prioritizing slow moments.
It wasn’t a smooth road to this space of slow living and business (good news for the rest of us who may be lingering in the in-between...it never is). Jas has explored various industries and parts of the world, built a family, burned out, deleted her Instagram, tended to her embers, and embraced her entrepreneurial “failures”—all in the name of divine evolution.
Jas is a power. Her work is a rising tide against the shores of society—breaking down outdated standards, molding the future of business, and reclaiming health, wealth, and divinity.
We are thrilled to bring you this interview with a true pioneer of Exploration and Evolution—may Jas’s words serve as the compass that points you toward your own sacred knowing.
Hi Jas! We’re so excited to have you as our December muse. First things first: what’s your Sun, Moon, Rising, and Human Design?
Sun: Capricorn
Moon: Pisces
Rising: Leo
Human Design: ⅗ Gut Generator
This month’s theme is Exploration and Evolution—a theme that I believe embodies your work and journey so beautifully. What do you think of when you hear these two words?
Exploration always precedes evolution. These two words remind that when we take care of the present, we’re met with a reward of the future. That concept also feels like a permission slip to be as human as we possibly can. Sometimes we’ll make a mess of things in order to figure it out. All innovative solutions—personal and collective— arrive when we get curious. I like to think of curiosity as a currency that never runs out and only compounds. Everything we see today that we define as evolutionary was because someone decided to look again, from another angle, getting up close, walking away, returning, asking a friend, and so on. They decided that despite the seriousness that encompasses life, they were going to choose play, even for a moment. Life is serious, but it is also deeply playful. That play can really only be summoned by using the wonder and imagination that vies for our attention everyday. There is no evolution of any kind without exploration— and so I suppose there is also no exploration without curiosity.
How has exploration played a role in the uncovering of your purpose?
The moment I realized that my purpose wasn’t the thing I did but instead the journey to uncovering who I am, a heavy weight was lifted. It didn’t make things easier per se, but it did allow me more space to inquire about myself, and to learn about the person that was having my thoughts, feelings and experiences. There are days that I crave for that epiphany moment of “yes, this is what I’m going to spend the rest of my life doing!” but the next day, I’m grateful that isn’t my path. I need to roam, to uncover, and to decode things. I have an endless appetite for knowing, for understanding the thing behind the thing, or the spirit that infiltrated the form. I suppose that’s my purpose.
Do you think we have one purpose throughout life or do you think it can evolve as we do?
