How to Build a Business With the Power to Change the World with Mina Raver

How to Build a Business With the Power to Change the World with Mina Raver

Welcome to this episode of The Determined Mom Show. And I am here with the fabulous Meina raver. She is the host of the podcast, forging fortune, and she is also the founder of the 2000 days project. Welcome, Amina. I’m very excited to have you here.

I’m really excited to talk about what we’re gonna talk about today, which is how to build a business with the power to change the world. But. First, we have to know about you, and like, how do you know how to do this? 

Sure. So like you said, I’m Nina. I have been doing two things my entire life, and since single digits, running businesses and knocking on doors activism, I moved my family out of the projects with my first business mowing lawns. I sold origami to my classmates until I saved up enough for a lawnmower. 

And then I went door to door asking two things, let me know your lawn and vote. Totally on my own. That’s it. It’s an interesting story. But that took me through. I put myself through college as an entrepreneur, after dropping out of high school, I went back to university and put myself through college and organized the entire time.

So while I was in college, I was also a scholarship recipient for the democracy for America campaign and went and met Bernie Sanders and Barbara Boxer and all of these people for the first time and was recognized for my activism. Later on. Of course, I got out of it and had my babies. I tried corporate.

It was not for me. So I started another business. And what else did I do? I ran for office with my first children. So I gave my first speech for the state office while nursing my newborn and my first speech for Congress holding her in my arms. My children were actually greeters at the door for most of my events when I was running for Congress, but that experience showed me something very important.

I learned a lot about how candidates are chosen behind closed doors. And I figured out why 20-something years of activism had shown so little. I had so little to show for it and really it’s because there’s a big difference between movements.

And movements that don’t and while his history tends to chalk that up to violence, what it actually is are alternatives. Whether or not there are popular alternatives available alongside demands for change.

And if anything has. If anything, the events of the last couple of days have taught us nothing. The things that actually may make sense like the average Joe are not necessarily popular, which makes zero sense to me. But yeah, we’re recording this right after Biden approved the student loan forgiveness program.

Very interesting. I know, I love 10,000 more. That’s like a semester. Hello? I know. That’s what I was thinking at a community college. No doubt not even. That’s only like maybe a month of room and board at an actual university. It doesn’t make any sense that people are angry about it, but yeah. It’s interesting. 

No, it makes no sense to me. And as somebody, I, as I said, I worked through college. It took me eight years to graduate. I took out loans.I did all of the things and I was able to pay my loans back before interest starts accruing on them. Student loan debt is wrong. It shouldn’t exist. It didn’t for previous generations, it’s morally corrupt. There it is.

That’s all there is to be said. And the fact that they’re charging such high interest on. Those types of loans as well. That’s a whole nother section of it, but yeah, it, the whole thing is just a, it’s a crazy game that is meant to make rich people richer and poor people poorer. 

And more vulnerable. Let’s not forget the Senator who outright said, I’ve been seeing this for decades, but now they’re televising. These student loan debts and these predatory loans are forcing working and poor people into military service. 

Yeah. And that’s okay. No, it’s not. Okay. And it’s funny because this is a whole nother topic we’re on now, but I guess it’s technically not. Cuz we’re talking about businesses with the power to change the world and this should be one of them. But people were commenting on some of my Facebook posts like, oh, I joined the military to solve that problem. Did you have to do that? 

That was your only choice. That was literally your only choice. Yeah, not everybody is cut out for the military and that completely our military really needs rain in any way. I agree. It’s crazy. So let’s talk about it. This is awesome, by the way, I’m so energized because I love talking to people like you. So let’s talk about how in the heck you build a business with the power to change the world from the beginning. Like how do you, first of all, go into knowing what type of business you wanna create with that thought in mind?

Sure. So let me first walk you through the six steps of building a systemic alternative. That begins with even believing that this is possible, right? One of the things I say all the time is that possibility is a limiting belief. Usually, when somebody’s telling you something’s impossible, it’s because they’re afraid of what you’re doing and they want you to stop.

But every inorganic system that we have around us to choreograph our lives, every single inorganic system began with an idea. And another thing I like to say all the time is that the laws of physics are absolute, but the laws of our peers and their ancestors require consent. 

So if you want to build a business with the power to change the world, the power to become a systemic alternative, it starts with an idea and now ideas are fun and exciting. But if you want to gather momentum around you. You need to look around you, find your allies, find your communities and hone your idea into a solid vision that others can gather around. 

And when you’re ready to start bringing that vision into the world, and this is the difference between a movement that works in a movement that doesn’t, you create systems that produce the outcome product of your vision consistently. That’s all we’re dealing with. 

They look like big strong structures, but what they really are is a series of ideas that have matured into visions, gotten other people to rally around them, and then organized into systems to produce the same results predictably. Unfortunately, some of those results are making sure that middle-class youth cannot afford to go to college.

So we get those strapping young youth into the military. That’s a system that has been created around that to produce that result predictably. And now that our leaders, if you will, are looking at what they were expecting were going to be their enlistment rates and comparing that to what their enlistment rates actually are.

They’re panicking because their systems are falling apart. And the other systems that have been attached to them. Are not insulating it the way that they’re supposed to, because the next step in this process is to insulate your system by integrating it with allied systems to create a greater structure. And the structures are what we’re up against.

Now, those structures will protect your system. Just as we’re looking at with the student loans, the system of higher ed doesn’t really have to spend a whole lot of time, energy, or money protecting their revenue stream because, Ingrained in the other systems and beneficiaries of other systems that if this system is changed, they will be affected negatively.

And so you have a lot of people who are coming up worried that their benefits are going to be affected by ensuring access to education on another side, their two sets of separate systems, but they’re part of the same structure. And that’s why things feel so big when we were occupying wall street from 2008 to 2010, I was an organizer for that or earlier, even when I was organizing for LGBTQ rights.

And back then, it was really just LG. All the way back then. That was the constant worry. I would meet women who were afraid. If we were okay with openly being gay or lesbian, that they wouldn’t be able to find a partner. So it was a completely different structure cuz they had grown up believing and there’s, I’m fine with this.

I don’t care. But they had grown up believing that they had to find a spouse that could take care of them so they could stay home with their kids and do all of that. I’m staying at home. Mom, I get the fear, but seeing those systems as opposed to each other is the benefit of having a structure and also the problem that we’re coming up against.

So step number five in this process, once you’ve insulated your system with integrator structure, you go through two periods of growth. And if you’ve structuralized well, the first period won’t affect you too badly. But during the first period of growth, your notoriety will grow more quickly than your revenue.

So the demands on your business will be greater than the revenue that you’re bringing in. But if you’re part of a greater structure, you’ll be okay. If not, you go back to that system. You reorganize your systems. You look around you. Nature provides such a robust resource for ways to organize energy and exchange.

That you just head back there, rebuild your system, integrate into the structure again, and try again. But once you have gotten to the point where you can grow past, and grow your notoriety faster than your revenue catches up, you’re in that final stage of density. You’re gaining density in notoriety and dollars, and you have proven beyond the shadow of a doubt.

You have a popularity. You have revenue, you have sustainability. You’ve proven that you are strong enough to become a systemic alternative. And why this is amazing is that so many ideas are subject to disingenuous debate. So many great ideas about how we should structure society, and how we should advance social technologies and civil technologies die on the debate floor.

And often in the hands of the disingenuous. But once those things are tested and proven, we have the market as a resource for that debate that doesn’t work anymore. Then things start coming out into the open and we start making real decisions. 

Do we want to force young people into military service for the most imperialist, profitable military complex in human history? or do we just wanna educate everyone? Now we can have a real conversation. 

Yeah. And I think the answer to that is very scary. I know, my God. It’s so scary. yeah. It can be, yeah, it can be scary. It’s genuinely frightening. And I think in my mind, and this is what I struggle with all the time, and my husband and I have conversations like this every day.

The scariest part is how you start changing the masses’ minds about those types of things. That is literally the hardest part in my mind. Like how in the world, can you convince people that A is better than B because A is good for everyone and B might not be good for you?

That’s, you prove it. You prove it. And so most people find their place and they stick to their place and they’re looking for safety. So as a society, social actualization follows the same series of providing needs. That self-actualization demands. And ultimately as a society on the social hierarchy of needs, is a little model that I have in my office here on the social hierarchy of needs.

We are afraid of other people coming into our space on the hierarchy because it might interfere with our access to our basic needs. So when it comes to changing people’s minds don’t try to waste your time or energy changing people’s minds.

That distraction. It is a fight. It’s fight energy. Fight. Energy is high manifestation energy, which means two things. When you direct it toward fighting, you’re only gonna get more fights.

There’s always gonna be somebody who wants your attention, who wants to use those talking points to prove their power, cuz it’s the only access to power they have. And a sense of power in your life is a basic human. But it also means that if you redirect it toward building instead, that is what you will manifest.

You will manifest your vision. People don’t have to be convinced that your idea is the right thing. But when you put your system against the failing institutions and they see their friends coming over to your system and they see their community coming into your system, they see that they need to move to be safe.

It never even has to be a conversation. That’s awesome. I love that answer. Oh my goodness. I love it. I’ve got goosebumps. I love it. I love it. I feel like you need to curate a list of books for my children to read. I think that sounds really weird. 

It’s just out of the blue, but my girls are so passionate about things and things like that. And I think if they had these kinds of ideas I feel like they would go take them and run with them. 

Yeah, absolutely. It’s really just curiosity. What I’m rolling with here is a really weird mix of. Physics, neuroscience, sociology, anthropology, like all of the things I’m just insatiably curious about. And since I dropped out of school early, I was able to follow that curiosity exclusively as a teen. 

And so a lot of what I am doing and sharpening and honing now, I actually learned in public libraries as a homeless dropout at 15, 16, and 17 years old. Yeah. Because I couldn’t go to school.

because my brother and sisters needed care.

My stepdad needed care full-time. Wow. So I would say let ’em loose. Yeah. And when they have questions, give ’em things, that’s going to inspire more questions. They’re the brain power. Especially young girls, right? That’s an untapped resource for social expansion.

Exactly. And I want them to be the leaders that I know that they can be, yeah. Yeah. It’s just gonna be amazing. So that’s exciting. Yeah. I’m so excited about that. yeah. Very cool. So you went through all of the steps, the six steps. Did you go through number six? 

Got it. So what do we do when our vision seems overwhelming in the face of the current structures that are in place? Like I’m thinking of one in particular. So for example and this is like the example that you gave with the student loans and the. University structure like that bank university structure it’s already in place.

It’s already benefiting so many people that it’s not really benefiting the people that should be benefiting from it. And that I feel is the same way with the healthcare industry. This is a huge one. The food industry and the healthcare industry and the pharmaceutical industry are all.

Giant structures and they seem overwhelming. And if someone is actually trying to make a difference and kind of undermine those structures, like I love what Mark Cuban did. First of all, that is a great example. I think of someone that saw something that could be different and had the resources and the fortitude to go ahead and pull through with that website.

I think that’s a great example of that, but. He’s a millionaire. I’m not gonna lie. Yeah, probably a billionaire, no, probably a millionaire. I don’t know his status, but he’s very well-connected. And he’s also an investor himself and he has so many resources. So what happens when you’re an average person? You and I, and yeah, you me, cuz you’re not average cuz you have all of these things already in your head. 

Let’s say it’s me and like I have an idea, like I wanna go up against big pharma or something like mark Cuban did, like how in the world you overcome that fear and that self-doubt and like all of those things, like that’s probably the, no, I get that biggest challenge for me.

And it is for everybody because so many of these things are ingrained in our hearts and minds at a time that we are just too new and dependent to challenge them, which is why I say so often that possible is a limiting belief. And it’s a fail-safe switch that has been ingrained in you from the time you were born.

So number one is to. Surround yourself with people who are doing the impossible every day. That’s why I started the 2000 days project because I talked to people who are trying to change the world. I’ve talked to people from all over the world. There’s representation from nine countries inside the project right now.

And we’re so new, but we’re all having such a hard time finding each other. Powers of misinformation. And what’s the word I’m looking for here? Exploitation is so constant. There are so many organizations and groups that are funded by big dollars that are calling in all of the impact entrepreneurs and all of the women entrepreneurs and everybody else.

And putting us in places where those limiting beliefs are just being reinforced. Which is really tough. So I would say number one, find a community like the 2000 days project, or start a community like the 2000 days product project, where you can challenge those beliefs every single day. And number two is remembering that the people who started this process started with cave paintings.

There’s nothing special. I tell people all the time if you wanna feel good about it. Go to a legislative meeting, go to a state legislative meeting, meet your state legislators. They are so mediocre and so void of gifts. Yeah. Ideas, really? Anything of value to the majority that you will leave there realizing that you are capable of anything.

That’s why I want everyone to embody three, like these are my three core attributes, things that when I look at my own story, the things that brought me through every step of the way and their courage, curiosity, and audacity, the courage to challenge, what is the curiosity to imagine what could be in the audacity to demand better right now?, And if the answer is. Dare someone else to say it, don’t be the one to tell you. No, ever. 

Yeah. That’s awesome. I love it. I love it. I love it. You’re all lit up. You’re glowing up. I am. And this stuff honestly, like if I could record every podcast about topics like this, then I would, it’s hard to find people that wanna talk about things like this I find. 

Sure. Yeah. That’s awesome. Tell us more about the 2000 days project. And like how people get involved in it. What is involved? Is it intensive? Is it like all of these things? 

Sure. I’ll tell you that the 2000 days project actually started with burnout. I went through about six months of trying to put my pieces back together after hitting the wall of Saturn return-level burnout. If you’ve got any astrology people in your audience they’ll know how difficult that first Saturn return can be. 

And so I really just floated for six months trying to figure out how I mix these pieces instead of just doing these partial attempts. At making a difference. How can I just go to the whole hog legendary end every day, with being able to tell my babies that mommy did her best today?

And it was the 2000 days project. And that is a self-paced incubator for leaders, liberators, and impact entrepreneurs from around the world. And the reason it’s self-paced is that the process, this is based on a process that I usually go through with people one on one, where we’ll go from audacious idea to income in 10 to 12 weeks, that process doable when it’s just us. 

And I only take two clients at a time because we’re working together 15, 20, sometimes 30 hours a week. And a lot of that process is transformative. So I can’t even do it with people who haven’t been through therapy and don’t know what it feels like to transform because doing it for the first time is so terrifying.

It can stop you in your tracks. So the 2000 days project is self-paced so that you can go through that process of transformation, identifying and transforming your own limiting beliefs, you are own inner. Guard rails, the things that might stop you when you wake up one day and look around and realize that, oh my gosh, it’s happening.

We go through the first stages of going from idea to vision. At your own pace. And then you come in on Wednesdays and Thursdays where I can facilitate for you. And you’re wrapped up into the, in the group and the community where everyone else is going through that process. Most of the founding members of this project have either inspired or been through this process.

So there’s a lot of great wisdom there and people who can help you through the pro this process, but we go through each of the stages all the way up to four and. When it becomes a close-knit mastermind, and it’s, there’s one fee because I wanted to be able to create a space where I don’t have to constantly upsell.

I don’t have to take every little thing that comes to my head and turn it into a new whatever. So the fee is the fee. And if you come in, I am very grateful to you for giving me the space and the exchange to be able to continue this project.  But I’m going through it as well. That’s it. 

What an inspiration you are to all of us. And I think it’s amazing that you’ve created this space for people to change the world. That’s literally what you’re doing, so I think it’s amazing. 

Thank you. It feels really good. Good sleep is a lot better. I’m sure. I’m sure. I love it. And I think we all need to find that thing that makes us passionate or that passion that we have and be able to marry it with those changes that we wanna see in the world. I pray that we’re all blessed enough to find those two things and be able to put them together. 

Yes, absolutely blessed and daring. And please just remember that before capital, I’m not talking about capitalism, but capital we exchanged based on barter. The concept of capital as a contract is to be able to exchange something that we can continue exchanging based on potential instead of presence.

There’s potential in whatever it is that you are envisioning and that potential is worth that exchange of dollars that you need to be able to support your life. It can turn anything into a business. 

So where is the best place for everyone to find you online?

Sure. I’m actually probably the most doable person in the world. You can just Google me in a paper. good. And you’ll be able to find just about everything I’ve ever done, but please do come. Talk with me on LinkedIn. Hang out with me on Twitch. 

I stream ancient role playing games on the super Nintendo on Twitch. If you wanna just hang out or I’m always available on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram. You can see my kids on TikTok. 

I’m gonna connect with you in all of those places and I hope that everyone else does too. And I will also have a link to your website in the show notes as well awesome.

Thank you so much, Mina, for being here and sharing with us this amazing process that you’ve created and just all of your knowledge and wisdom. 

Thanks for this wonderful opportunity. My cheeks are hot. My husband’s gonna be like, who was talking to you today? You’re a great host. I had a lot of fun. I forgot that I was recording. I love talking about this. It’s like a natural conversation, so I love it. Thank you.

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