Start Here: When Success Nearly Killed Us
A Sacred Business Manifesto
A manifesto for anyone who's ever felt disconnected from their work—whether you're dreaming of starting, struggling to sustain, or successful but empty.
Hi, I’m Phil Powis, half of the Sacred Business Flow Team. I’m joined by my partner and Chief Energy Officer, Carolina Wilke. You’ll meet Carolina soon, but first, let me tell you about the hardest time of my life.
By 35, I was managing a consulting business bringing in over 100K a month in revenue.
I share this number not to impress you, but because what happened next might be the most important business lesson I ever learned—one that applies whether you're trying to make your first $1,000 or your next million.
On paper, my life looked like a dream. On the inside, it was a very different story.
Disconnection is feeling like you’re living someone else’s story.
Maybe your dream looks different than mine did. Maybe you're still building toward it, or maybe you've already achieved it. But here's what I've learned: disconnection doesn't care about your bank balance. What I didn't understand then was how my inner patterns were creating my outer reality—including my business results.
Disconnection is feeling like you're living someone else's story.
No matter how much I achieved, I wasn't feeling connected to the abundance or joy of these accomplishments. I kept thinking the next milestone would fill the emptiness—the fancy car, the house in Boston, the six-figure months. But each achievement just highlighted how disconnected I'd become.
Overtime, it got worse.
Years of ignoring the warning signs - playing the "lone wolf" who didn't need the help of others, and not listening to my inner wisdom finally culminated in a complete breakdown of my health, several autoimmune conditions, and the final straw:
The discovery of a golf ball-sized tumor growing in my neck.
Me grinding in my business at the expense of everything else.
That's when the doctor dropped the bomb: I had a 50-50 chance that I was walking around with cancer.
As I saw my mortality flash before my eyes with my tumor diagnosis, I zoomed out in a way I'd never before experienced. My business strategies were sound, but I'd completely ignored how my inner state was sabotaging even my best systems.
Halfway across the world, Carolina was experiencing her own critical moment with her health.
While I was chasing external success at the cost of my health, Carolina was trapped in a different kind of prison - the golden handcuffs of corporate stability that was literally giving her migraines.
The stress of living for years in a fast-paced corporate lifestyle had left her with consistent chronic migraine headaches making it hard for her to function in her daily life. Like me, she'd mastered the outer game - the corporate strategies, the metrics, the systems—but something deeper was crying out for attention.
Carolina exhausted all conventional medical solutions for getting help, eventually giving way to trying lesser-known treatment modalities.
One of the most extreme attempts was enlisting the help of a small old Chinese woman who aggressively cracked her jaw to improve the flow of Chi.
Carolina tells the story that she remembered thinking, "Oh no, is this woman going to break my face?"
But she was desperate to find a solution.
She was in and out of hospitals, often experiencing intense vomiting because she was too sensitive to be exposed to light.
One day she found herself in Montreal, locked in a dark room, crying as she asked herself a simple question: "I wasn't born like this; how did I get here??"
She didn't know what it was going to take, but she felt a strong conviction that she would find the answer.
Continue To Part II↑
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What’s next?
Carolina and I are ready to support you in creating a business that aligns with your heart's calling. Here's how we can help:
Click to Find Your Hidden Business Pattern (Free): The Harmony Map Assessment reveals which inner pattern is blocking your next level - and why strategy alone hasn't fixed it. For entrepreneurs ready to address both the inner patterns AND outer strategies for breakthrough results.
