Entrepreneurs Awakening through Ayahuasca | Michael Costuros – EN33


On today’s episode of The EntheoNation Podcast, we host Michael Costuros of Entrepreneurial Awakening, a company specializing in ayahuasca retreats for entrepreneurs. During our chat, we look back on Michael’s own journey in the entrepreneurial world and how he discovered the powers of ayahuasca before dedicating himself to aiding others on their own quests. Michael details the specifics of his program and comments on his beliefs for a progressive yet respectful practice. We discuss some of the difficulties that are present in a modern, cross-cultural context and also imagine the future of what has become a more and more popular trend. Our guest’s own experience has led him to cultivate, what he calls, a ‘detached engagement’ to business, through which he is able to be engaged with the work but feel detached from the trauma and reaction of every day fluctuations. I personally love this description! Entrepreneurial Awakening was born out of Michael’s own explorations and I can’t help but feel that the organization is all the better for his personal touch and ethics.

Key Points From This Episode:

  • An introduction to Michael’s entrepreneurial journey and his first retreat.
  • The idea of ‘detached engagement’ as a way to manage success.
  • How Michael started to facilitate ayahuasca retreats himself.
  • The pricing model and specifics of Michael’s retreat package.
  • Ego death and the relationship between experience and entrepreneurship.
  • Potential conflicts in spaces that possibly contradict each other.
  • The choices Michael has made and how he positions himself and the courses he runs.
  • Some of the effects and changes Michael has witnessed in his participants.
  • The benefits that Michael views as most prominent from the periods.
  • The future of the current spike of interest in ayahuasca retreats.
  • Openness to new ways of mixing the tradition of ayahuasca.
  • The four common traditions of ayahuasca usage.
  • Michael’s most far out visionary experience!
  • And much more!

Art by Juan Carlos Taminchi

Tweetables:

“Fully engaged with the game of the start-up and not emotionally attached or in a reactive, traumatized state relative to whatever was going on that week.” — @mCosturos [0:02:55.4]

“I leave my agenda at the door, I don’t have an agenda for them.” — @mCosturos [0:17:54.3]

About Michael Costuros

Michael has been leading a business mastermind program aimed at tech entrepreneurs since 2011. Unlike most business coaching available, his is unlike any other, a course which includes a ten-day long trip to Peru, where participants take part in three traditional ayahuasca ceremonies. During the three-month long program, participants are treated to 1-on-1 coaching with Michael and are given extensive integration after their ayahuasca experience.

Why did Michael decide to use psychedelics in his high-end business coaching?

Michael has always had an interest in psychedelics being born in the Bay Area to Hippie parents. In 2008, when his tech startup was facing a number of challenges, his wife convinced him to travel to Peru for an ayahuasca ceremony. He was reluctant at first, but the ceremony revitalized his interest in his business. He came back to San Francisco “reinvigorated and free.”

Michael wanted to share the benefits he’d found from his experience to other business owners. At the back of his mind, he was sure that he’d be able to help those entrepreneurs who wanted to improve themselves and grow their companies. He has this idea that through the ayahuasca experience, he could help people remove all the ‘schmutz’ from their lives, allowing them to feel ‘more like themselves.’

Michael’s course starts at around $11,000, which isn’t cheap. But for a three-month long business mastermind, this sounds a reasonable charge, especially considering it includes a ten-day long retreat in Peru. Michael claims that he doesn’t make much money through this business, just about covering costs, and that he would make much more (and have more time to himself) offering a standard business mastermind.

Michael sees psychedelics as the future of personal and psychological healing and self-improvement. He strongly believes that the countries that remain with a prohibition-era mindset for the longest will miss out the most on the myriad of benefits these can offer.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

EntheoNation on Patreon

Michael Costuros

Entrepreneurs Awakening

SaaS

Elon Musk

Amazon

Art by Juan Carlos Taminchi

Medicine Music for the Soul

Lyrics:

Campanas angelicales que ahora vienen subiendo
Mensajes dimensionales que ahora vengo comprendiendo
Campanas angelicales que ahora vienen subiendo
Espacios dimensionales que ahora vengo recorriendo

Pinta dragon
Pinta wacamayo
Pinta fenix
Pinta yage
Pinta awacolla
Pinta huachumita pinta sanpedrito lleno de (Saber) poder

Ese fenix viene volando
Por los cielos con sus alas
Va despegando levantando vuelo
Iluminando nuestro camino
Sagrado abuelo crece lindo huachumero arbolito
lindo cactus espinoso lleno de luz estrellita de poder
ilumina nuestro cuerpo fenix dorado luminoso
llevanos en el camino donde nadie este perdido
Va fluyendo como el fuego como el agua como el aire
Purificando nuestros corazones ay mi tierrita viene sonrriendo
Chaska nawi awichu Kurajqtayta killa inti
Huma sacha sairy protector ay tabaquito libranos del mal
K’anchan nanninchis waka hampi sairiririririri
sairiri trananainai sairiri jaimaru jaimaru

Acknowledgement:

Birds of Paradise

Desert Dwellers

Emancipator

The Human Experience

Kaminanda

Phuture Primitive

Shaman’s Dream

1 Comment

  1. noyb999@gmail.com' noyb on October 18, 2021 at 6:31 pm

    sorry but it makes me cringe seeing a white cis-male making money with indigenous medicine from an oppressed part of the world. yikes!

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