Akemi Gaines, Founder of Yes to Me, quit her corporate job in October 2007 because she believed she could help more people worldwide with her unique skills. She rented out the house she bought less than a year prior, moved herself from Tennessee to Oregon, and started her service as spiritual coach. Today she has a successful practice and is earning more than she did in her corporate job.

Akemi shares her insights with Anita Campbell and Brent Leary on how spirituality can actually help entrepreneurs – especially during the difficult startup phase – when it might be hard to pull yourself out of the darkness and into the light.  Akemi has published an ebook titled, “Lightworkers Guide to Self-Employment” which you can download and view, free of charge.

Below are the questions we asked Akemi:

• (2:32) First, tell us a bit about yourself and your background?
• (2:37) Is that what made you decide to leave the corporate world?
• (3:47) Was it scary when you decided to leave?  How did you come to leave that position?
• (4:50) So you felt you could achieve more with your new business?  Is that what actually led you to leave the corporate world?
• (5:56) Tell us why you feel spirituality can help entrepreneurs?  Isn’t pursuing money and wealth at opposite ends of the spectrum from spirituality?
• (7:59) Do you feel that many entrepreneurs are in touch with those points, or is that something that we could more successful with if we got in touch with those points?
• (9:22) I know you’ve got an ebook and you lay out some steps for entrepreneurs, with the first step being to ”find your niche.”  Where does the title come from?
• (10:55) In the ebook, you talk about self-sabotaging patterns.  What are some of those negative patterns and how do we identify if we are engaging in self-sabotaging patterns?
• (7:17) When it comes to spirituality, there are a lot of business people who don’t seem to practice it when it comes to business.  Are there cases where people just don’t have spirituality? Are there people who simply have no spirituality?
• (19:31) You write about starting a business as a way to live your life purposefully.  What does that mean?  What does “life purpose” mean to you?
• (20:40) When you think about perfectionism, where does it fit into starting your own business as an entrepreneur?
• (21:17) When you talk about spirituality in business, when can it become a detriment?  Can you rely on it too heavily? 
• (22:17) What if you come across a customer who leads with their religion as opposed to their spirituality?  And it conflicts with how your spirituality leads you in business – how do you resolve that?
• (23:34) How does culture impact the way people view spirituality?  Does it keep us from really understanding the spiritual aspects of how we’re trying to do things? 
• (24:56) You have a concept that you call “jumping” - what is jumping?
• (26:15) How would you suggest entrepreneurs start to drill down and get a clear vision of their success?
• (27:20) Akemi, where can people find out more about you on the Internet and get your ebook?

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