Capacity to Live in Liberated Ways

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in personal development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Shengxiao "Sole" Yu, Founder of Nectar, located in Los Angeles, CA, USA.

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

Nectar is a home for life-affirming experiences for liberation. Nectar envisions a future where everyone has safety, belonging, justice, and love. Nectar works to move us toward that future through teaching workshops, writing articles, speaking at events, and creating community resources.

Nectar's customers are folks who are interested in deepening their learning and healing. In particular, I offer political education that is connected to how we show up in our lives. Nectar's customers include coordinators for professional development at corporations and nonprofits and their ERGs and affiliate groups, community organizers and grassroots groups, school districts, folks organizing conferences and retreats, and individuals in the community who are seeking more liberated ways to live. I also offer special programs for my Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community members.

Tell us about yourself

My business, Nectar, was born during the second year of the pandemic. I often think about author Arundhati Roy's words that the pandemic is a portal, "a gateway between one world and the next." These words were a grounding force to propel me through the portal and create Nectar - a space dedicated to our collective liberation.

Throughout my career, I have worked in a variety of nonprofit and social sector spaces. My jobs have given me many opportunities to learn from grassroots community leaders and organizers. The more I learned, the more clearly I was able to see the intimate connection between the nonprofit industrial complex and the systems of oppression operating in our world. I realized that philanthropy relied on structural poverty and exploitation in order to exist. I also saw many organizations within our social change movements that were replicating the same problematic dynamics that we see in our larger world. Holding these complexities and with the support and encouragement from my community, I created my own business, Nectar, a home for life-affirming experiences for liberation where I teach workshops, write articles, speak at events, and create community resources for all.

What motivates me each day to continue this work is the act of creation: my work is creating joy and abundance while imagining and living into a more liberatory future.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

My biggest accomplishment is being able to stay committed to building a business that is aligned with my values. I am growing as a person and growing Nectar in ways that are rooted in community, rooted in anti-racist, anti-capitalist values, and rooted in the vision for our collective liberation, rest, and joy.

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

Running Nectar as a one-person business is far from easy. When I first started, I heard advice from people about how hard it can be to do taxes or run a marketing campaign. And yes, these things are indeed difficult for me. But by far, the hardest thing about being a solopreneur is that there is no escape when it comes to my own healing and growth. The traumas that I have not processed, the toxic emotional patterns that I still rely on, and the shadow parts of myself that I try to keep buried will come up again and again, in all kinds of contexts, until I truly commit to doing the hard inner work. And this inner work is a life-long journey.

I also know that we cannot do our inner work alone and must be in a relationship with our community in order to heal and grow. At this time, I want to call more people into my life to be my chosen fam, especially in Los Angeles, as I cultivate my LA community for liberation.

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

Get really clear on your values because those are your guiding principles that create the foundation for everything you do.
Build a community of support because, in Grace Lee Boggs's words, "the only way to survive is by taking care of one another."
Commit to your inner work because your business can only grow when you grow as a person.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.lifeaffirmingnectar.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeaffirmingnectar/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shengxiaoyu/

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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