2.4 Breaking Free from Hustle & Hierarchy: A New Way to Grow Your Business

Today we're talking about something that has shaped not only the way we do business, but also the way we see success, work, and our own worth. We're diving deep into the sixth and seventh waves of consciousness, energies that have influenced business structures, marketing, sales, and customer relationships for generations.

And while these waves have served a purpose, they've also created rigid systems, hustle culture, and disconnection that are no longer sustainable. But this episode isn't just about what's wrong with these paradigms.

I also want to acknowledge what they've contributed. The positives that helped us evolve to where we are today, because the truth is they did serve a function in our evolution. They provided stability. Organization, efficiency, and economic growth.

We'll look at how these energies still show up in business and how we market, how we sell, and how we build customer relationships. And the problem isn't that they exist. The problem is that many businesses are still clinging to them, even though the world is shifting into a new consciousness.

So today we're going to look at how these waves show up in business, how they might be stifling your growth, sales, and impact, and how continuing to operate from them can actually harm not just your business, but your customers, the planet, and future generations.

And of course, I'll be sharing how we can move beyond them into a more aligned way of doing business, one that reflects the ninth wave consciousness and allows us to thrive in a way that is sustainable, joyful, and abundant. So let's dive in.

Understanding the Sixth and Seventh Waves

Let's start with just a general question of what are the 6th and 7th waves. You can go and listen to the 1st and 2nd episode of this season to get a general understanding of the waves, but I'm going to focus on the 6th and 7th waves today.

To understand why the Sixth and Seventh Ways are significant, we need to briefly look at how they have shaped humanity's consciousness, and by extension, how we approach business.

The sixth wave brought order, structure, innovation, hierarchy, and control. It allowed societies to build civilizations, create stable governance, and establish systems that brought order. It helped humanity move from chaotic, unstructured ways of living into organized societies, businesses, and governments.

It created systems that provide order and stability. We've seen the development of defined roles, corporate structures, management systems, and long term planning. In business, this has translated into foundational business models, into legal frameworks, and systems of authority that have helped business scale beyond one to one transactions.

We've seen the development of defined roles, corporate structures, management systems, and long term planning., but there's a shadow side to the sixth wave and its energies of duality, hierarchy, rigid systems and systems of control and obsession with power. It's the energy behind these rigid systems where power and wealth are concentrated at the top, while those at the bottom have little autonomy or voice, and we see that coming full force.

In the time we are living now, and of course, it's the energy behind forcing people to conform versus valuing someone for their individuality. This wave taught us to see the world in binary terms. Winner versus loser, right versus wrong, success versus failure. The shadow side of the sixth wave brings rigidity and power concentration.

It's an energy that prioritizes control over collaboration, conformity over creativity, and external validation over inner guidance.

How These Energies Show Up in Business

So let's look at how specifically this shows up in business. So the sixth wave is the energy behind these top down power structures, where decision making is concentrated at the top and workers follow strict rules with little autonomy.

Businesses operating from this wave are often resistant to change and produce environments where employees feel like they're Cogs in a machine rather than key contributors.

This often is going to manifest as bureaucratic red tape, rigid corporate structures, and resistance to innovation. This energy prioritizes external validation, fitting into predefined roles, and keeping power within the hands of a few.

It's an energy that favors control over collaboration. Conformity over creativity and external validation over inner guidance. So how specifically can this show up? Let's say in marketing, sales and customer relations. So let's look at marketing. We can find hierarchical top down messaging where the business is the expert and customers are expected to obey or follow rather than engage in dialogue.

In sales, we see this in high pressure, manipulative tactics that position the company as an authority and the customer as someone who needs to conform. In customer relations, it shows up as a lack of flexibility, treating customers as numbers rather than individuals and enforcing strict policies that don't account for human needs.

The Consequences of Staying in These Energies

Now these energies are going to stifle business growth because it limits innovation by enforcing rigid structures that don't allow for adaptability. They create poor customer loyalty as customers feel controlled rather than empowered. It leads to resistance to change, making businesses slow to respond to new trends.

And in the long term, these energies create harm by reinforcing outdated power dynamics that prevent businesses from evolving. They harm customers well being by prioritizing profit over people, and they encourage unsustainable business models that exploit resources. So we can think of specific examples.

Case Studies: Blockbuster vs. Netflix

So, for example, if we compare Blockbuster, if anybody remembers Blockbuster, with Netflix, Blockbuster was a perfect example of a six wave business trapped in hierarchy and control. When streaming services like Netflix emerged, Blockbuster executives refused to adapt. Sticking to their existing DVD rental model, they dismissed innovation, thinking that their dominance in physical stores made them untouchable.

As a result, they collapsed under their own rigidity, while Netflix, which embraced agility and innovation, thrived.

Now, the seventh wave brought us industrialization. Technological advancements, mechanization, and productivity focused thinking. It introduced the concepts of efficiency and mass production, allowing businesses to scale in unprecedented ways. This wave made it possible to mass produce goods, scale businesses, and reach global markets.

It also introduced meritocracy, meaning people could build success based on their efforts rather than being locked into a class system. This was a huge step forward, making success more accessible based on effort rather than birthright. But the shadow side of the seventh wave brought hustle culture and systems of extraction, where success is tied to how much you can do, and how much you can achieve. It's created the belief that your worth is tied to how much you produce. The seventh wave told us that rest is lazy, worth is earned, and doing more is always better. But if rest is lazy, then you have to keep grinding.

You have to keep scaling. You have to keep doing more. It led to burnout stress and businesses that valued profits over people and the planet businesses that began prioritizing output over creativity, efficiency over wellbeing and scaling over sustainability. So in marketing, this seventh wave energy shows up as this endless content treadmill, feeling like you must post constantly, chase the trends, and never pause.

In sales, this energy can look like the always be selling mentality, where every interaction is about extracting value rather than building a relationship. And in customer relations, this particular energy offers minimal support over automation and focuses on efficiency at the cost of human connection.

And this energy, it stifles growth because it creates a race to the bottom, competing on volume rather than value. It leads to higher turnover as employees and entrepreneurs burn out. And it prevents deep, meaningful customer relationships from being made, and makes customer retention harder.

In the long term, the seventh wave energy encourages unsustainable business practices that exhaust resources and people. It trains customers to accept cheap, fast, and impersonal experiences. It disconnects business owners from their creative essence, making work feel like a grind.

We can see this particular energy in Amazon's labor practices. So Amazon relentlessly focuses on efficiency and speed, which is the classic seventh wave business model. The company revolutionized e- commerce, but its warehouse workers often report grueling conditions, strict surveillance, and burnout.

While it has driven innovation, it also reflects the dark side of the 7th wave thinking, valuing production over people.

So while the 6th and 7th waves build the foundation for modern business, these waves helped us to build structures and systems that we rely on today.

But they also brought significant challenges. They introduced toxic patterns like burnout, inequality, and a disconnection from our authentic selves. And we are being called to outgrow these patterns.

So the 6th and 7th wave aren't just historical. They still influence how many of us operate in business. So, from the sixth wave, we see rigid structures that prioritize profit over people, top down management styles, and an overemphasis on external validation. If you've ever felt like you've had to fit into somebody else's box to succeed, you've been experiencing the sixth wave energy.

From the seventh wave, we see hustle culture in full force. This energy shows up as overworking, glorifying busyness, and feeling like your worth is tied to how much you can work and feeling like your worth is tied to how much you can produce, which leads to Workaholism--it leads to pushing ourselves to exhaustion, believing that it's the only way to make it or to be successful.

The business strategies rooted in these waves were built for a different time when hierarchy, control, and productivity were the primary drivers of progress.

But we're living in a new era, one that calls for unity, collaboration, and alignment. When we stay stuck in these old energies, we burn out because we're forcing ourselves to operate in a way that no longer aligns. We repel customers because people are increasingly craving authenticity over authority.

And we miss opportunities because rigid structures and hustle prevent organic innovation. These energies create patterns of control, exhaustion, and disconnection. Patterns that keep us stuck and out of alignment with our true purpose.

Moving beyond them allows us to step into the ninth wave where we can create from a place of flow, authenticity, and mutual benefit.

Now, let's get specific And tangible about how these energies show up in business today. Even though we are shifting into a higher consciousness, many business are still deeply entrenched in the 6th and 7th wave energies. We see it everywhere from leadership styles to marketing, from sales tactics to customer relationships.

So let's start with leadership and business structures. Many businesses still operate in rigid hierarchies where power is concentrated at the top. Decision making is dictated by outdated models that prioritize profit over well being.

Employees are expected to fit into predefined roles rather than bring their unique genius to the table. A great example of this is Kodak's failure to adapt. Did you know that Kodak actually invented the digital camera? But they refused to shift from its film business because its leaders were stuck in hierarchical decision making and fear of change, which is six way thinking.

They feared change and clung to control, leading to Kodak's decline while digital photography companies thrived. Digital photography exploded and Kodak, once an industry leader, became obsolete.

We can also see these energies in marketing. Sixth and seventh wave marketing often relies on manipulation, fear based tactics, and scarcity mindsets, telling customers they're not enough unless they buy a product.

When you see marketing pressuring customers into buying through urgency tactics and pinpoint exploitation, that's 6th and 7th wave energy. It pressures customers into buying by making them feel like they're not enough, rather than empowering them to make aligned decisions using education, empowerment, and resonance.

We can see this clearly in the traditional diet industry for decades. Brands like Weight Watchers use fear based messaging to sell weight loss. The message was clear. You're not good enough unless you lose weight, lose 20 pounds fast, or you'll never be happy. Now contrast that with brands like. Athleta or Aerie, which use 9th wave marketing by embracing body positivity, empowerment, and inclusivity.

We can also see 6th and 7th wave energies in sales.

So traditional sales models focus on persuasion, pressure, and urgency tactics to push people into buying. Sales techniques still prioritize closing the deal over genuine relationship building. The pressure to always be selling stems from the 7th wave productivity mindset, and hustle energy. Often leading to tactics that ignore long term trust in favor of short term gains. Traditional sales tactics prioritize urgency, pressure, and closing the deal at all costs.

Now on the other hand, ninth wave energy businesses prioritize relationship building and value based selling. So there's many examples of car companies that have gone from operating from high pressure sales tactics that push customers into making fast decisions to selling with transparent pricing and no pressure sales.

And so these types of sales strategies move more towards the ninth wave business model. In customer relationships, we see the sixth and seventh wave businesses tend to treat customers as numbers rather than people. They emphasize volume over meaningful relationships. So instead of reciprocity and mutual benefit, many businesses still treat customers as transactions rather than relationships.

Support systems often prioritize efficiency over genuine care, creating a disconnect between companies and their clients. We're seeing this. At the moment really play out in the health insurance industry, where customer service is outsourced, it's automated and designed for efficiency and not connection. So a great example here is Zappos customer centric approach. Unlike traditional retailers, Zappos built its brand on deep, authentic customer service, prioritizing connection and relationships over efficiency.

Their customer service isn't just about solving problems. They want to create genuine connections, trust, and loyalty. It's more of a ninth wave approach.

So it's time to move beyond the sinks of seventh wave energies they're no longer serving us, especially those of us who are already aligning to this new consciousness. And so if we are relying on outdated business models that are rooted in the 6th and 7th waves, they can actually limit the success that we have in the long run.

So how do the sixth and seventh wave stifle growth, sales and profit? Well, because rigid hierarchies, which come from the sixth wave, slow innovation and kill adaptability. The rigid structures prevent innovation. When business models don't evolve, companies struggle to adapt to new markets, to new technologies and to customer needs.

Hustle culture, which is the seventh wave, leads to burnout and high turnover, both for business owners and employees. And this approach creates exhaustion and dissatisfaction, reducing creativity and long term success. And the sixth and seventh wave also create transactional relationships That weaken brand loyalty.

Customers are more likely to disengage from businesses that treat them as numbers rather than valued partners.

We often see that short term profit driven tactics damage a business's reputation. Those who use manipulative marketing and aggressive sales tactics often create distrust and lead to diminishing returns over time. And we know that fear based marketing is alienating more modern conscious consumers.

So the sixth and seventh wave energy have long term consequences.

Businesses that fail to evolve beyond these energies are going to struggle to keep up with changing consumer consciousness. These outdated energies damage customer trust, they damage the planet, and they damage future generations.

Examples of Businesses Evolving Beyond These Waves

We can see this even in fashion brands. For example, brands like Shane and H& M reflect 6th and 7th wave exploitation, prioritizing profit over sustainability.

In contrast, we see Patagonia and Everlane who embrace transparency, ethical sourcing and sustainable practices. We see them thriving as conscious brands.

So the 6th and 7th wave energies have a greater impact when we continue to operate from these energies. We're not just harming ourselves and our business, but we're perpetuating harm on a global scale.

We can consider the environmental impact. The seventh waves obsession with productivity and output has led to overconsumption to environmental degradation and unsustainable business practices.

Extractive capitalism has prioritized short term gains over the wellbeing of the planet. The 6th and 7th waves sacrifice customer well being. The pressure based sales tactics and manipulative marketing strategies born from these waves create stress, confusion, and misalignment for customers, leading them to make purchases that don't actually serve them.

And then ultimately the sixth and seventh waves are not creating the type of environment that we want to leave for future generations. Businesses that continue to operate under hierarchical profit at all cost models are not preparing future entrepreneurs to create sustainable, balanced businesses that honor their sole essence. Instead, there are perpetuating cycles of exhaustion and misalignment.

These systems and strategies that are rooted in 6th and 7th wave energies were built for a different time, when hierarchy, control, and productivity were the driving forces of progress. We're living in a new era, one that calls for unity, collaboration, and alignment. Staying stuck in 6th or 7th wave energy is going to lead to burnout, frustration, and a feeling that something is missing.

And moving beyond them allows us to step into the 9th wave where we can create from a place of flow, authenticity, and mutual benefit. So why does this matter? Well, because staying stuck in the 6th and 7th wave business models is actually hurting, hurting your growth, your profits, and your long term sustainability.

Rigid hierarchies prevent innovation. Hustle culture leads to burnout and turnover. Manipulative marketing alienates cons, conscious consumers, transactional relationships weaken brand loyalty. And beyond that, these outdated models are damaging the planet, harming customers and perpetuating unsustainable business practices.

Shifting into the Ninth Wave

So how do we break free? How do we move beyond the sixth and seventh wave energies?

Well, the first thing we have to do is recognize that we're stuck in that energy. We need to recognize when we're operating from these waves. And if you feel stuck, exhausted, out of alignment, reflect on whether your business practices are rooted in outdated models of control and hustle.

We need to adopt a relationship centered approach. That is, we move from transactional interactions to genuine relationship building in marketing sales and customer engagement We can embrace sustainable and regenerative practices So consider how your business decisions impact the planet how it impacts your well being and how it impacts future generations And finally we need to make sure that we redefine success So let's let go of the idea that success is about working harder, achieving more or hitting external milestones.

Instead, focus on alignment, focus on joy and sustainable growth. So here are some questions that you can ask yourself.

**Do I feel like I have to follow rigid rules or strategies that don't resonate with me?

**Am I overworking, feeling burnt out, or tying my worth to my productivity?

**Do I feel disconnected from my purpose, like I'm going through the motions instead of creating with intention?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, it's likely that old patterns from the 6th and 7th wave are at play.

The good news is that recognizing them is the first step to moving beyond them.

Practical Steps to Align with the Ninth Wave

Once we've identified the patterns Here are some ways to shift into alignment and move beyond the sixth and seventh wave energies

So first reconnect with your values

So instead of chasing external success get clear on what your business stands for Take a step back and reflect on what truly matters to you What are your core values and how can you let them guide your decisions?

Moving beyond the sixth and seventh wave means prioritizing alignment over external validations. So think of Patagonia's environmental mission, for example. They don't just sell clothes, they fight for the planet. They're not just selling products. They're committed to sustainability, to donating profits to environmental causes, and leading by example.

So another way to shift into alignment is by redefining success.

So let's move away from productivity driven goals and define success in alignment with your soul essence. Challenge the idea that success is about doing more or achieving external milestone. What does success feel like for you?

Moving beyond the seventh wave means redefining success on your own terms, rooted in joy and fulfillment. So let's think about Basecamp's calm company culture, for example. There's no overtime, no hustle, just sustainable. Basecamp has rejected hustle culture, implementing a four day workweek with a no overtime policy, and it still thrives.

Next, you can embrace rest and flow.

So rest is not lazy. It's necessary for creativity and alignment. Give yourself permission to rest and recharge, to create from a place of ease. Remember that rest is productive. It allows you to show up as your best self. This is a key part of stepping into the energy of the ninth wave.

So Google, for example, is famous for implementing a 20 percent innovation time

And in doing so, employees were able to be more creative and innovation spiked and there was much less burnout. This 20 percent time policy that allowed employees to work on personal projects led to major innovations like Gmail and Google Maps.

And finally, you want to create from alignment.

So instead of forcing a one size fits all strategies, honor your unique business energy. Instead of following somebody else's blueprint, tune into your energetic matrix and create in a way that feels authentic to you.

Ask yourself what feels aligned with my soul essence. What actions bring me joy and energy? We can see this in Apple's intuitive design philosophy

Apple prioritizes creativity, simplicity, and intuitive design, moving beyond rigid business strategies. And they did this much more so when their founder was still living.

So let me share a story of when I was able to break free from hustle culture, even though it took several iterations of this experience in order for me to break free, early in my business journey, I was deeply entrenched in seventh wave energy.

I believe that working harder and doing more was the only way to succeed.

I would work late into the night. I would skip breaks and constantly push myself to achieve. I would skip meals.. Sometimes I lived off of coffee and other unhealthy snacks instead of having proper meals. But all of this pushing and all of this hustling made me feel exhausted and disconnected from my purpose. When I started exploring the ninth wave, everything changed. I gave myself permission to rest, even though it was hard to disconnect from those belief systems that came from seventh wave energy.

I had to learn to give myself space to create from a place of flow and to let go of strategies that just didn't align with me, especially those that I recognized were coming from sixth and seventh wave energies. So not only did I start to feel more energized, but my business began to thrive. I start to have a lot more clarity about what it was that I wanted to offer, how I wanted to show up in my business and what.

I wanted the legacy of my business to be.

So that's 9th wave. It allows you to step into a new way of being one that honors your soul and creates sustainable success.

I want to stress that the energies of the sixth and seventh waves built modern business. They have shaped the systems and mindsets that we've inherited, but they are no longer serving us, especially those of us who are more and more resonating to the ninth wave.

It's important that we recognize when we're stuck in these old patterns so that we can take that first step to shifting and moving beyond them.

We can look at the ninth way that invites us into a new paradigm of business that's rooted in alignment, flow, and authenticity. So moving beyond the sixth and seventh wave isn't just about creating better businesses.

It's about contributing to the evolution of consciousness.

The more we align with unity, with authenticity and flow, the more that we shift the business landscape into something that serves all of us. Now, these principles are the foundation of my program, Divinizing Your Business. And if this resonates with you, I'd love to help you explore how you can align your business with the energy of the ninth wave.

So I want to thank you so much for tuning in today. If you know of anyone who would benefit from this message, please share it with them.

If you're ready to dive deeper, visit my website and learn more about DIVINIZING YOUR BUSINESS. This program Is designed to help you break free from outdated patterns to create a business that aligns with your soul essence and the ninth wave. We can work together to build something that reflects your soul and contributes to the collective shift towards unity.

Thank you so much for being here. I'll see you in the next episode.