Episode 136: Matthew Sherman Regenpreneur Story - The True Value of a Business

organizational management personal development regenpreneur startup story Sep 05, 2023

Matthew Sherman as a guest on the Seeds of Tao Podcast

Promotional Links:

StorySeed Community and Resource Commons - a community of like minded impact entrepreneurs cultivating their regenerative businesses, and also a storehouse of free resources and all the recordings of our events for impact entrepreneurs.

Join us in Episode 136 of the Seeds of Tao Podcast as we chat with Matthew Sherman. From coaching to performance psychology, and even a transformative health crisis, Matthew's story is a captivating journey into regenpreneurship. Learn how he defines regenerative business, shifting away from old mechanistic thinking, and discover his insights on changing the programming of your business for a brighter, more regenerative future. Tune in and let Matthew's transition away from business as usual, towards business built on regenerative principles inspire you as you cultivate your regenerative business! 🔥🌱

Show Notes:

1. 2:35 What got you up this morning?
  1. Meditation is a daily practice I do in mornings
  2. Never really have a hard time getting up it’s harder for me to shut my mind down at night
2. 4:33 How did your journey as regenpreneur start?
  1. Always loved to bring people together from a young age
  2. Loved being in the energy of groups
    1. Protests
    2. Concerts
  3. My professional career as basketball coach led me to performance psychology
  4. Led me to nutrition science to help my athletes perform better
  5. Found nutrition to be a key point in solving many of the illnesses we have today including cancer
  6. 10:03 the beginning of my first business was aligned with the idea that preventative nutrition can be the solution to many illnesses that seem to be incurable.
    1. Started a restaurant that helped the community make better choices around nutrition
3. 11:25 What was your greatest challenge as an entrepreneur?
  1. Self management as an entrepreneur was probably my greatest challenge
    1. So much happening all at once. Rapid growth in so many ways created anxiety
    2. I started getting attention as a community visionary and successful entrepreneur which inflated my ego and other parts of my personality that didn’t serve me.
    3. Entrepreneurs are constantly put in places where they can easily be influenced by the opinions of other, of missing out on opportunities which can bring us to making judgements of what we deem as successful and worthy
      1. If we can focus on self-manage we can manage these judgements in healthy ways that don’t tie our identity up in the business and our thoughts of what we think success looks like.
      2. Build your self-awareness and discipline so that you can reach a higher levels of consciousness that will result in great impact no matter the business or profession.
4. 26:54 How did your entrepreneurial world begin to tip into the regenerative world?
  1. Didn’t want to do business as usually anymore
    1. First business grew fast and then imploded
    2. In our first business we were creating so much waste and got to know the ecological challenges that come with the restaurant industry
    3. With multiple locations I also saw the big disparity between land owners and tenants
    4. I also found that when we started that the business was spiritually expanding and as we grew it became more and more spiritually deadening
    5. I knew I didn’t want to do business like this anymore.
  2. Found a better way of business through regenerative design
    1. A good friend gave me a book called Theory U which led to me becoming a systems thinker
    2. Found Carol Stanford’s work around regenerative business
    3. Then found Regenesis and Lift Economy
    4. By discovering ways to move away from business as usual I came into the space of regenerative design.
5. 32:47 How would you define regenerative business?
  1. Business that adds more life to the systems around it
  2. Creating more capacity in the natural systems that the business engages in not just extracting from one area to another or doing good in one area while covering up the bad in another.
  3. Moving away from the mechanistic programming much of our current culture has embraced.
6. 42:27 Changing our programming
  1. Understand and honor all parts of us.
  2. The magic Matthew is trying to reach is being able to honor all parts of our being while also doing so with purpose
  3. Applying this change of programming to our businesses can be done as we search for higher order values around the metrics we are focusing on in our business.
    1. What is the real value or the highest order of value around getting a new client?
      1. Is it to make profit?
      2. Is it to do good?
      3. Is it to create impact?
      4. Is it to understand our client and better serve them?
      5. Is it to add more life into you and your client’s life?
    2. Our businesses can be vehicles for helping us get better at the way we are thinking and working with natural systems.
7. 54:38 How can we get involved and stay in touch with your work?
  1. Reach out on social

Guest Bio:

Matthew Sherman - LinkedIn

Matthew Sherman is widely known as a community creator, and culinary innovator. His mission over the past decade has been to transform the category of healthy foods from a boring, arduous and exclusive landscape to a fun, and inspiring experience, focused on building the community of health. Sherman’s multifaceted abilities to brand, lead and cultivate experiences quickly set him apart from other entrepreneurs and chefs.

In his late 20’s Sherman started to truly understand how dynamic, human performance really is. “The approach to health has to be all encompassing. You cannot drive a car with one tire and you cannot create optimal performance without examining a persons food choices, physical movement, past experiences, DNA, cognitive tools, emotional flexibility and strength, relationships and spirituality.” Says Matthew.

In 2010 Sherman embarked on a journey to nourish his community and raise the vibration of clients, customers and employees. The vision was to provide the most nutrient dense food and juices that he possibly could. He opened jugofresh, an organic cold-pressed juice, smoothie and vegan food restaurant, which quickly gained a cult like following. Both jugofresh and Matthew received national and international attention with appearances on the Today Show, articles in Conde Naste, Travel & Leisure and USA today, as well as features in The Miami Herald, Ocean Drive, and Miami Magazine.

Sherman recently launched Oneness Projects, LLC in June of 2018, which is forging new and progressive ideas, building a real estate and revitalization project. Matthew is committed to spreading his core values of more unity, more peace, more love, and ultimately more thriving free people.

Host Bio:

Emily Prieto - LinkedIn

Emily is an explorer for the new creative solarpunk world and catalyst for regenerative economies and permanent cultures (permacultures). As the co-founder of Seeds of Tao she helps create experiences and opportunities for entrepreneurs to build strong regenerative enterprises. She is an artist, creative designer, and brand strategist who has worked with small and large businesses to create content that shares the brand identity through a compelling message and story. Using her creative design talent, Emily has also become a permaculture land designer, helping to design both commercial and residential lands for long-term regenerative change. She fluently speaks Spanish and English, adores Latin-American culture and chooses to build community and regenerative stewardship in the rainforests of Central America alongside her husband and four children.