The Alimond Show
Welcome to The Alimond Show --join us as we share our entrepreneurial guests' stories, uncover their secrets to success, and explore the unique paths they've taken to build thriving businesses in our community.
In each episode, our host, Aliyah Dastour, sits down with a diverse group of local business owners, from the corner cafe to the boutique shop, from tech startups to family-run enterprises. We peel back the curtain to reveal the trials, triumphs, and transformational moments that have shaped their entrepreneurial journey.
Discover the passion, perseverance, and innovative thinking that fuels these businesses, as well as the challenges they've overcome along the way. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur seeking inspiration or simply a curious listener interested in the stories behind your favorite local spots, The Alimond Show has something for everyone.
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The Alimond Show
Abraham Ajenifuja of Peace Profit LLC - From Quiet Beginnings to Soul-Driven Leadership: Transforming CEOs, Embracing Authenticity, and Navigating Silent Soul Epidemics
What happens when leaders look beyond the balance sheet and seek a deeper connection with their souls? We sit down with Abraham Joseph Ajenifuja, founder of Peace Profit LLC, who reveals the transformative impact of soul-driven leadership. Abraham takes us on his journey from a quiet upbringing in Nigeria to becoming a beacon of support for CEOs facing "silent soul epidemics" that sabotage their potential. Through his story, he shares how embracing one's authentic self can lead to not just business success, but profound personal fulfillment. We tackle the pressing challenges in leadership today, from team retention to finding purpose beyond mere financial gain, all underpinned by the power of inner peace and genuine relationships.
Imagine a world where businesses aren't just profit engines but thriving enterprises that empower people to live their best lives. That’s the vision we explore with Abraham, as we discuss breaking free from societal constraints that stifle creativity and self-expression. We dive into his spiritual awakening journey, which transformed him from an introvert to an extrovert eager to contribute to a more inclusive and loving world. Our conversation touches on the universal nature of sacrifice and the boundless nature of faith, highlighting how a true connection with God can be a powerful catalyst for change. This episode isn't just about leadership; it's about the freedom and confidence that come from embracing your true self through faith, and how that can ripple through every facet of life and business.
My name is Abraham Joseph Agenfogia, the name of my business is Peace Profit LLC, and we offer soul-driven leadership for chief executives and CEO of businesses.
Speaker 2:Love that. Could you give me a little bit more detail about what that entails and how you help these CEOs and entrepreneurs?
Speaker 1:Well, they are highly driven, and so they want to make profits for their businesses. But there are three things that leaders are required to do for their organizations to have peace, profit and prosperity. A lot of times what is hindering them is what I call the silent soul epidemics, which leaders and most people are not aware of. That limits their potential, so they are not operating at their full capacity. So I help them to identify the areas where those potentials have been limited, to overcome it. And so their business can thrive, their lives can thrive, their relationships can thrive, their lives can thrive, their relationships can thrive, their family, they're just very productive. I call them blooming entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2:Ah, love that. I'd like to know what are some of the issues that just for our listeners to get examples of, and myself, what are some of the examples that some of the CEOs are coming to you for and how do you help them? I guess, fix those issues.
Speaker 1:Well, one of the problems they had so you talk about is their team. You know retention, being able to keep their teams on focus and being able to differentiate themselves in their industry so they are not like everybody else. Yeah, that's a challenge. Then they get into price wars and things like that and it just decreases the value of their company. Another thing they deal with is just existential issues. They want to make sure that there's something more than money and there's something more than wealth. There's something more than that, and they have not had someone to articulate how to find out what that thing is for them. So I help them with that to connect themselves with their authentic self, because there's a gap between a CEO and their authentic self, so people don't operate from their authentic self. There's a gap between that and that's what is causing that feeling of something is missing. I don't know what it is. So I have them to see that. Have them connected in their personal life and also in their professional lives.
Speaker 2:Yes, Love it, Thank you. Now can I get a little bit of a background about yourself and how you got into your industry and what led you to where you are today?
Speaker 1:Yes, I'm from Nigeria originally. I grew up in a very ritualistic environment. We are always doing sacrifices for this and that, and I was a very sickly person when I was a child and an introvert. So you see, an introvert and a sickly person.
Speaker 1:Trouble I was very quiet. I don't speak up, but the environment I lived in was a very extrovertic environment. People were able to express themselves, but I couldn't, and people don't even pay attention to me because I didn't have something worth to say. So I was always alone. But in my loneliness I was able to observe a lot and in my observation I discovered that people are not really operating in their full potential Because these extroverts, they also have a downtime and I always worry and observe a lot of those things.
Speaker 1:So one of my reasons for where I am today I started as an introvert and that introvert nature followed me into the school system, into university. I was such a quiet person and, in terms of being able to flow with the crowd, I did not speak for my authentic self. I always followed the crowd, you know, because I didn't want to be left out, you know. So. You know, but there was something within me that was saying you know, this is not right, Something is missing here. You've got to find it. You know. So for me it was a journey of transformation. When I came to know Jesus as my Savior, you know, that transformed me, that connected me with my authentic self, so I didn't have to be somebody else. I could be myself, be peaceful, be relational, you know, have confidence. You know to address my point without being obnoxious, to be very kind to people. And I felt that I was not the only one going through that experience.
Speaker 1:In my 30 years plus of leadership, I found that a lot of leaders were like me. They were not operating from authentic self. They defer to the external environment. A lot of leaders were like me. They were not operating from authentic self. They defer to the external environment, they compare their business to their friend's business, but they are not building their business based on their authentic, soul-driven self. Yeah, and that's what is causing the gap. That's what's lowering productivity, the relationship, their creativity and innovations. It lowers that so that the value of their company decreases, not the way it's supposed to be. So that's what led me into the soul-driven leadership business and I call my business Peace Profit.
Speaker 2:Peace.
Speaker 1:Profit? Yeah, because when you have peace with yourself, when you have peace with God, have peace with yourself and you have peace with people, you're going to make profit. Because profit is about people relationships. Yes, If you can master the way to live with people, any business that you do, you're going to make profit in that.
Speaker 2:Yes, start your way to live with people.
Speaker 1:any business that you do, you're going to make profit in that. Yes, absolutely, and making profit not as a goal, but transforming the life of people you know, and making profit along the way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I love that. Thanks for sharing that. Let's talk about your little anchor over here. What's the backstory on that?
Speaker 1:Well, this anchor here is from my church, our pastor, pastor Mike Foster. I go to Foster Bible Church in Maryland and you know we are doing a series in Hebrews, you know, and then we are reminded that as Christians there's so many trouble in the world. You know there are many challenges that even Christians who believe in Jesus, have a lot of faith, can drift away from their faith. But Jesus is our anchor for our souls. If we believe in Jesus and we nurture our soul, we're going to stay in him. And staying in him means that we're not going to be drifting, because drifting just takes a little degree, and a little degree before you know it, one has wandered away from the faith. So this anchor reminds us to stay. So the pastor, when he was preaching that message, gave everybody an anchor.
Speaker 1:How sweet as a reminder, as a reminder, and so we've been doing that for about two months or so. So I just have the anchor in my suit, yeah, for good luck, and reminder anchor with my suit, yeah.
Speaker 2:For good luck and reminder right, exactly yeah. Very nice, I love that. And now talk to me about marketing. Are you using social media or are you going out to social networking Not social networking, I'm sorry, networking events. Yeah, with any of your peers or the community to get the word and your name out there about the type of services that you provide.
Speaker 1:What are?
Speaker 2:you doing.
Speaker 1:Talk to me about that. Yeah, that's an area I need to improve on. Before the pandemic, I was doing that. I have about three different social networks I belong to, and after the pandemic we know what happened Everything just shut down and I have not been able to recover from that to join other networking organizations. So I need to do that. But I do have some masterminds, some groups of professionals that we meet once in a while together to talk about some specific areas. That's slightly different from networking, but about the same thing. Okay, yeah, and in terms of social media, I'm learning to post and to make some few recordings, videos. It's a very broad area. I'm not very proficient in this.
Speaker 2:That's okay.
Speaker 1:So I need some help with that, because one thing that we struggle with is that we try to be everything as entrepreneurs but we can't. Yeah, I know. But I'm learning about that. Hopefully I'm going to break that cycle and learn how to do that. Or maybe hire somebody to help me to do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I love that. That's the first step is knowing where you need to work on, because if you don't know, then you can't start.
Speaker 1:So that's okay. I love that you're self-aware about that, exactly, thank you. Yeah, of course.
Speaker 2:And where do you see yourself in the next five years as a person and with your business?
Speaker 1:Wow, that's a. I'm glad you asked that question. My vision is big, you know, but I envision a world where I'm addressing what I call the silent soul epidemic. You know what I suffered when I was, from childhood up to the level of professional level that is very pervasive among every person, especially leaders. It's called silent soul epidemic. It's silent because it is not easily diagnosed. It mimics the symptoms of other ailments, so the current traditional method of helping a patient is not going to work. Okay, it's silent and it's soul-oriented because it captures the soul. Because the soul is silent, the soul is not operating at capacity. And it's soul-oriented because it captures the soul, because the soul is not operating at capacity and if an epidemic is pervasive, so I want to address that through mental health and spiritual education all over the world.
Speaker 1:So my vision is actually to make $5 billion in the next 10 years. You know education about silent soul epidemic. So I want to take people from that SSC, as I call it, to a blooming soul enterprises that are beautiful, turning the landscape of the world from poverty, brokenness, captivity, oppression into beautiful, radiant, attractive enterprises. You know that's blooming, blooming people. They are boundless people. You know, in their thinking, entrepreneurs and businesses. They are boundless in their thinking. They are limitless in their achievement. They know there are obstacles, but they are overcoming those obstacles and manifesting their soul genius. So that's my vision.
Speaker 1:I'm passionate about it. I cannot do that by myself, so I want to invite people to join me in that movement so we can change the landscape of the world right now that 8 billion people are not living the full capacity of their lives, and many people live throughout this world without ever knowing it, trying to go to doctors to treat other ailments. But the problem is not the problem they're not addressing the right problem. The true problem is sudden soil epidemic that limits the capacity of output. It affects all areas of life in the family, in business, in education, in religion and government. We are limited. We are limiting ourselves in in what we can do to make this for a better place to live.
Speaker 2:I want to change that yeah, no, that is a big challenge there, right it is I'm sure that you'll be able to do it yes do you currently have a team with you or are you solo?
Speaker 1:I'm solo, okay now how um is that?
Speaker 2:Do you have any future plans of maybe onboarding people?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, definitely, Definitely. I would like to have what I call a business empire, which means that I'm going to be having people to help me in technology area we talk about in marketing area, we talk about, in HR we talk about so that I can focus more on strategies to reach these 5 billion people I talk about.
Speaker 2:Awesome Love that. Is there anything maybe that I have not touched on that you would like to share, about yourself or your business?
Speaker 1:Well, I think you've covered most part. I think one thing that I love to share is that we have a society right now where people are not people are afraid to express themselves. It's in schools, high schools, it's in colleges, universities, it's in homes. People are afraid to express the authentic self for the fear of being rejected, being misunderstood or being thought of as not highly intellectual enough. So these people have very good ideas, but they don't talk about it and that idea sometimes can stay with them throughout their lives and they don't want to talk about that. So some Albert Einsteins have been silenced in our societies, you know, and it's affecting the economy of the world, of the country, because here you have mental health problems that come from this silent soul behaviors. Because this soul is very powerful, it wants to come out, it wants to express itself, but if there's no room to express it, what happens is that it comes out in a very strange and difficult and very terrible way. Sometimes, yes, you know, midlife crisis, mid-career crisis. They are the evidence, manifestation of a soul that is not expressing itself, you know. So it's very pervasive and one thing I want to do about that is to be able to educate.
Speaker 1:You know all those five pillars I talked about family, business, education, religion and government and so that we can reduce you know, the government can reduce these social budgets. You know, because they're not spending money on the right things. So if we can help the home, the businesses and the government, the world will become a better place because we're addressing the main issues and everybody will now be able to participate in the economy of their lives, because right now not everyone is participating because they're not expressing themselves, they don't know what they can do. There's no opportunity for them to express that, to create things that no one has done before. Creativity is a vehicle of civilization, right is a vehicle of civilization, right. So if you don't have that, then the human race globally is being affected. So I want to start from local to national and to global awareness of this epidemic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's amazing. I'm glad that you have started on this journey, because it needs to start somewhere, right? That's right, that's right and another thing that I was just on this journey because it needs to start somewhere. Right, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 1:Another thing that I was just thinking about that I would like to touch on is you said you grew up an introvert.
Speaker 2:Yes, is that correct? Correct, and this was before you said you found Jesus, correct.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's correct.
Speaker 2:How did you not lose? I guess hope to overcome that. And look at you now You're here on a podcast talking to me. That's not very introvert right, it's not talk to me about how you overcame that. For maybe any listeners out there who are entrepreneurs and they're just like oh, I need to up my extrovert game like tell me about your journey with that good question.
Speaker 1:well, even though I was an introvert, you know, I knew within me that I had something to contribute. I just needed an opportunity to do that. I didn't have that, you know, but I was seeking. If you asked me back then what I was looking for, I would not be able to articulate it, but when I saw it, I believed it's what I was looking for. When I saw it, I believed it's what I was looking for. See, what really helped me is because in my society we did a lot of ritualistic sacrifices. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You take animal and sacrifice for sickness, for this and that? Yes, and I grew up in that, and so I questioned that who are they been sacrificed to? What in the world is this person? Even though I grew up in a Christian home, we did sacrifices and things together. I wasn't grounded in my Christian faith at all, I just did whatever I did. But I love something about Christians. I just don't know why. They seem to be very peaceful, very joyful, and I'm just attracted to that. So I found myself following anywhere I see them happening, whether it's gathering together as a young kid as a young kid, you know.
Speaker 1:And so that interest led me gradually when I came to the United States. And so that interest led me gradually when I came to the United States, I went to a church and I had them mentioned in the same Hebrew class Interestingly, this anchor was also the same Hebrew class when I first got to this church in the late 80s and the message was that there was somebody called the Lamb of God that was sacrificed. I didn't know who that person was. This one was sacrificed. And then, the more you know, when you go to a class, for example, after the class is over, you know some students go to the teacher's desk.
Speaker 2:And ask questions.
Speaker 1:Ask questions. I was the one that would quietly go behind and listen to what he was saying. I didn't want to appear stupid. Oh, I'm going to say, oh, please tell me who is the Lamb of God. They say don't you know him? I didn't want to be lied to, because this church is a highly scriptural church, you know. Yeah, I didn't want to express my ignorance, so I'll go and listen to them. I say wait a minute, I do not know what they're talking about. What am I missing here?
Speaker 1:So it was that the practice of this church. When somebody visits that church, they'll come to your home and just you know fellowship with you and ask some questions. Yes. So they asked me a question myself that if I died that night, was I sure I would go to heaven. I said, yes, I was sure. But when they asked me, why was I so sure? I told them Because of me. I'm a good person, I'm a kind person, I'm a giving person. I used a lot of I's in my answer and the man who was speaking with me, his name was Gary Williams. He asked me. He said what is a pronoun in your response? Pronoun? I said I.
Speaker 2:Well, he told me that I had an I problem.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I thought this I or this person? He told me I had an I problem. Yeah, I thought this eye or this person. He took my hand and said there was nothing I could do.
Speaker 1:To get myself to heaven that Jesus, I have to do a lot of sacrifices. You know that Jesus had paid it all One sacrifice. He took care of that. So that took me back to my childhood. When I look at all those sacrifices we used to do, when I look at all those sacrifices we used to do, you know, and it just came so clear to me that Jesus was the final sacrifice. There's no need to do any other animal sacrifices. And so that belief transformed me. Because I had confidence, I was so happy, I was very bold Now when I knew that, wait a minute, I don't have to please anybody by trying to defer to them, even if I knew something I was right to do. I had confidence that someone who died and also rises again on the third day, that lives in me, gives me that confidence that anybody who died and rose up it can do anything. I have that person in me, confidence. I have more confidence.
Speaker 1:Yay, I love that oh yes, so that's what transformed me from introvert to extrovert. You would never know that I was an introvert at all. No, because when I'm talking about something I'm very passionate about, you will never know that Light up. Yes, so that is what transformed my life. And the more I look at the world, when I look at any area of the world, there are always sacrifices going on. There are people who are still trying to make sacrifices. There's no need.
Speaker 2:There's no need.
Speaker 1:There's no money for that, you know. So that tells me also that God is so loving that he left evidence of himself in all cultures. So people were sacrificing this unknown God. God left the evidence for him that somehow, somewhere, somebody will come and tell them that this God you are serving is the only true God, and you can reach him through Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:Powerful message there.
Speaker 1:That's beautiful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, thank you so much for coming on to this podcast and sharing your journey, your story. We really appreciate you being here and just thank you.
Speaker 1:I'm glad to be here. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.