From Obstacle to Opportunity

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Jamie Jenkins, Founder of Lemon Rebellion, located in Ecuador.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Lemon Rebellion is an online platform of experts, events, content & community where people become skillful at navigating major life-quakes. We help people connect to their authenticity, power, and self-compassion to become a better version of themselves. In Lemon Rebellion, we are a community of people who have had to become our heroes, the authors of our own stories. We question the brules (the bull@#$* rules) we inherited and strived to become the change we seek every day in our families, communities, and the world to make a difference.

Our events & content are curated & created through a carefully vetted network of experts with at least a decade of experience and one major accreditation in their field, which may include: psychology, therapy, life coaching, career coaching, health and wellness, and more. They dedicate themselves to equipping people to take the next step forward in their journey. When I say "life-quakes," I'm referring to any of the 43 highly stressful events mentioned in The Holmes-Rahe Life Stress Inventory. These events, when accumulated over a lifetime and without the proper tools & support to manage, may rob us of our joy & power.

Life-quakes may include:

Estrangement from a loved one
Getting fired
Receiving an unfavorable health diagnosis
Death of a loved one
Aging parents
Big changes in your family structure
Or many other significant life-altering events.

The research around this inventory has concluded that, on average, an individual will go through three to five life-quakes (my word, not theirs) during their lifetime. For a great many of us, it's more. The truth is adversity is a part of life. We can all be served by becoming better equipped to deal with it or even use it to our advantage. Adapting to massive change is a necessary & valuable skill in these unprecedented times.

Whether you are an expert, thought-leader, or seeker, the community has a place for everyone. As a part of the Lemon Rebellion, you will discover resources, tools, ideas, and people to take the journey to become a better you. It is possible to become more skillful at turning adversity into an opportunity.

The five things we talk about the most in our community are:

Develop an Appreciation for Life
Open Your Eyes to New Opportunities
Build Personal Strength & Resilience
Develop Radically Closer Relationships
Deepen Your Spirituality (whatever that means to you)
In case you're wondering, our community isn't about toxic positivity.
It's about authenticity and empowerment.

We believe that everyone, no matter what life has thrown at you, is capable of becoming the hero of their own story. Sometimes we sit in squalor for a minute, and it's a natural part of the grieving process. Lemon Rebellion is there for that, and we'll be there to help you when you're ready to get back up. To the experts and leaders here today, please apply to join our community as a mentor or guide.

To the seekers, I want to gift you a recording by Dr. Daryl Appleton about becoming the author of your own story. You can download it at the link shared later on in this interview. Our community is growing, and I'd love to have you be part of it wherever you see yourself fitting in.

Tell us about yourself

I'm motivated by the idea that people can find what they need at the right moment to move beyond adversity. I want all of us to become more resilient in body, mind, and spirit! When I went through my first major life quake, I didn't have the knowledge, resources, or network to get the support and tools I needed to move forward even when I was ready. It took me way too long to discover the mentors & ideas that would help me take my next step.

I want to make sure every person going through a challenging time can find that one thing, that very next step, that will change the trajectory of their future for the better. It may be a new insight, a new habit, a new perspective, or a new belief that changes them profoundly. Lemon Rebellion is becoming the best place online to discover new resilience, happiness, and wellness practices that can help you become more skillful at navigating life quakes.

Lemon Rebellion is what I needed when I went through a significant dark period in my life. It took me so long to find practices and people to help me become more skillful at managing my own major life-quakes. Looking back, I suffered needlessly in isolation for too long. What I needed to know was out there. I just couldn't find it.

I am so grateful now because I get to help others discover that one thing to move their journey forward faster! I want others to be able to move on after the inevitable life-quakes to their next level of greatness with community & support.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Everything comes down to living out my values, creating impact, and building relationships. Anyone can make money. Anyone can sell a service. If you're good at marketing, your service can be crap, and people will still buy it from you. I'm so turned off by all these "6-figure coaches" with huge Instagram followings who seem more concerned with manifesting their financial goals than delivering massive value. That whole idea repulses me because it's not authentic. I'm rooting for the really great hidden gems, the high-impact value-driven experts who haven't found their platform yet online.

Creating real value, long-term relationships, and lasting transformation are what matters to me. So far, that is my biggest accomplishment. A funny story . . . when I first started Lemon Rebellion, I did online research to find experts that met the criteria I had set out for our community. I cold-contacted hundreds of people by DMs across socials and by email. I posted about who I was looking for in tons of Facebook groups. For someone who is naturally introverted, trust me, this was terrifying.

And yet I saw week after week how many answers of "yes, I'm interested" came in. DMs and email replies galore. I started getting emails from Public Relations agents who represented important positive influencers requesting the opportunity to collaborate. Women with decades of experience, published books, significant communities, and who had given major speaking events joined. It blew my mind how many excellent, highly-trained, outstanding experts and lovely people wanted to join the project.

My ability to share the vision and build trust - online without having met them in person - is an accomplishment. Yet it's one I am keenly aware has as much to do with WHO I brought into the project as it does with my own abilities.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Not taking things personally and staying connected to that growth mindset of every failure is feedback. I guess that's very "Lemon Rebellion" of me, come to think! As I build the business, it can be challenging to stay connected to my highest self. Entrepreneurship is often about trial and error. So when failure inevitably comes my way, I have to remember that it's not that my ideas are terrible, that I'm not smart enough, or others are fundamentally rejecting me. It's all a part of the learning curve and the feedback loop of figuring everything out. I also try to remember to practice self-compassion and quiet my inner critic. I find it important to gently guide myself back to objectivity when I feel like I've failed at something and look at whatever has happened with curiosity and non-judgment to see what I can learn. Maybe the wording was off. Maybe I still need to learn more about marketing to have a better strategy, or whatever the case may be.

Another challenge for me is putting the stakes for myself so high in my mind. I get so excited as the change-maker that I see myself to be. For me, the vision of where the Lemon Rebellion is headed is so clear. I can see it, taste it. I can feel how it will turn out even though I don't see every step yet of how it will get there. So, not having this vivid vision exist yet in my present reality is complicated.

I tend to beat myself up a lot when I see, always after the fact, that I could have done better. I want things done fast, and I can be impatient. This project is teaching me self-compassion, patience, and perseverance. It is helping me to overcome the idea that I have to do everything by myself so as not to depend on everyone. It turns out that's a trauma response, ironic, right? Tough lessons for me personally! The growth and learning component of being an entrepreneur is brutal but beautiful. I wouldn't change it for the world.

I am also learning that it's not fair to judge our past selves by what our present selves have learned. I'm learning that my success depends on my ability to stay connected to self-compassion, a strong vision, detachment (ironically), and a growth mindset.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

Honestly, step one, get a mentor. Find someone who has done what you want to do before, or something close to it, so they can help you shorten that learning curve.

Next, pace yourself. It can be so exciting to create something new and bring it to life in the world. But you can burn out. You'll need to build self-care, rest, and fun into every day, week, month, and year to enjoy the ride, not just get to the destination.

Finally, start to journal. You'll find that becoming an entrepreneur can be pretty lonely, and there is so much to learn and do. I like to follow a Stoic nightly practice of journaling about three things:

That which went well and for which I am grateful or proud,
That which didn't go well, and how I would improve it for the next day or next time, and
Three things that I am excited about doing the next day.

Doing this little practice has been so helpful for staying balanced and strong. You won't always have someone else to talk to about your entrepreneurial journey. Still, journaling helps you have a trusted confidant in your life. You. :)

If you don't have one yet, start a morning routine that sets the tone for the day, connects with your best self, and brings your goal and purpose to a life you're going to struggle with.

I wrote a blog about my morning routine outlining eight steps that can be so helpful to do every morning. It's easily tweaked to fit your lifestyle & priorities. A good morning routine sets you up for an outstanding day, especially for entrepreneurs!

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.lemonrebellion.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lemonrebellion
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lemon_rebellion/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamiesjenkins/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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