Creating A Business Summit for the Sober Entrepreneur
As an avid podcast listener, I’ve come across many different models of bringing together people with a focus on learning, teaching, sharing, and mentorship. Listening to podcasts themselves has helped to keep me sober, especially in the first several months when the voices emanating from my own head were telling me that having a drink with friends isn’t a big deal, I’d have the wisdom and stories being fed right into my brain reminding me of just how easy it is to slip back into the addiction, and that nothing good comes from that, and a ‘fun’ night has limitless consequences.
When I was nearing 1 year sober, and hearing that there was a ‘gap in the programming’ regarding entrepreneurs in recovery, I decided to start to fill that void. There’s no shortage of people taking their found stores of energy and using it to build their own businesses and take their lives to a new level that they never would have reached in active addiction. I’d hear a few of these stories sprinkled in on the podcasts I was consuming every day, but there was no single source that I could go to to see all these companies and individuals who have made their dreams into a reality.
Finding a Voice
As I’ve slowly wrapped my head around what I can do myself to help the sober entrepreneur community, I’m finding that podcasts are popping up all around focused on successful soberpreneurs and on those turning their struggles in addiction into a powerful drive to create change in the world through business ventures. There are magazines dedicated to those in recovery. There are one-on-one mentors and addiction counselors out there focused on helping individuals facing these challenges.
One thing I have continued to notice is that there still remains a lack of a singular touch-point to unite all these efforts.
I am now starting to catalog different categories of business ventures and the companies and sober individuals heading them. Such categories include Clothing and Apparel, Sober Beverages, Media/Podcasts, Event Planning, Personal Success Coaching, and Software/Mobile Apps.
A Home for Sober Entrepreneurship
Consolidating these disparate companies into one directory will not only give potential customers a new way to find new companies that are making a positive contribution to the sobriety movement, but can also serve as an example of what is possible in sobriety when one turns all the energy that they used to pour into drugs and alcohol and instead turn it into a driving force behind a business of their own that can revolutionize their life.
With this said, in order to turn this directory into a real, live, influential piece of the Internet, I’m forming the first Sober Venture Summit.
What to Expect and How to Join
I will feature interviews and in-depth discussions with some of the most widely (and most niche’y) members of the soberpreneur community. Since I also work a full-time job, this endeavor may take some time to come to fruition, but I invite you to join the process early to share your insight, join as a guest, or just cheer us on along the way!