EXPLORER 30 - SEBASTIAN DIENST


 

HOW TO ALIGN YOUR INNER & OUTER JOURNEY AND CONSCIOUS ENTREPRENERUSHIP

SHOW NOTES

Our guest today is Sebastian Dienst, a serial tech entrepreneur, and the co-founder of Remagine. In this episode, we talk about his entrepreneurial journey, conscious leadership, the future of financial services, and how you can align your inner and outer journey to live a meaningful life.

The Beginning

“That really threw me into the journey at an early age, and I got really interested in the mind.”

Sebastian started his spiritual journey at a very young age. His older sister suffered brain damage at birth and when Sebastian´s mom was pregnant with him, she was concerned that this could happen to him as well and as a result consulted with an astrologer to choose the best birth time and date. The astrologer also prepared a detailed report with projections for Sebastian´s life. 

When Sebastian was 9 or 10 years old, he found this document while playing in the living room which made him ask the deeper questions, what is free will, who are we really and eventually led to his interest in Qi Gong, meditation, mindfulness and neuroscience. 

Sebastian grew up in the dot-com era and became really interested in the stock market and investing as a teenager. At the age of 14 he started a German stockbroking website and newsletter with a friend. 

A Life-changing Trip

“For a long time, I didn't think I could be practicing Dharma in the very cosmopolitan Western world. But now I see it as my true path.”

Sebastian eventually left his first company to focus on finishing high school, but continued his entrepreneurial journey with Rocket Internet upon graduating from university.

When Sebastian joined Rocket Internet it was just expanding massively into Europe and the rest of the world. He led a start-up in the e-commerce/auction space which grew at massive speed. The best way to describe Sebastian´s lifestyle at the time was "work hard / play hard". 

During this time he met with a friend who had just come back from an ayhuasca retreat in Peru. While his friend´s experience sounded quite out there (ayahuasca was not well known in the Western world in 2009), Sebastian was also intrigued and booked a 10 day retreat in Peru as well. 

Sebastian had a deep awakening experience during this retreat, which led him to leave his start-up in Berlin and he threw himself into an intensive 4-5 years inner journey of self-discovery. During this time, Sebstian meditated 6-7 hours a day and spent time in monasteries in Asia and with shamans and healers in Peru and other parts of South America. Every time he came close to ordaining as a monk or training more deeply with shamans, he was pulled back into the Western world. At some point it clicked for him that his own path was as a "householder" in the Western world, practicing and living the Dharma in every day life. 

Revolutionizing The Future Of Financing

“The idea is to use financial products and services to inspire and incentivize for more impact and sustainability in companies.”

After working for a few years as the Founder & CEO of Shore US, Sebastian returned to Germany. After listening to a podcast, he had an idea for his current start-up, Remagine. Remagine is a financial platform for start-ups that want to change the world in a positive way.  It is a financial lending company with a goal to reshape financial services through founder-friendly and tech-driven financial solutions that inspire businesses to be more successful, sustainable, regenerative, and impactful. Remagine only works with impactful companies, that are trying to make the world a better place.     

Sebastian and his co-founder Julia Johansson have a vision to turn the company into a retail bank in the future and become a sustainable bank in the financial industry.

Palma’s Reflection On Aligning The Inner and Outer Journey

One of the things that I often notice when people get started on the spiritual path, is that they often feel that they have to either completely renounce the world, or that they have to just be in the world and cannot really follow their spiritual path. 

However, you don’t have to choose one way to live, these can exist as parallel paths. The real art is when we can do our inner work, while doing our outer work, and combine our spiritual practices and our meditation practices, with our everyday experiences.

One of the best ways to do that is to try to cultivate a similar awareness that you are cultivating during your meditation practice, during everyday activities, by bringing curiosity, non-judgment and presence to everything you do. 

So this week we invite you to bring a quality of aware presence to all the interactions that you have and try to focus and be curious about everything that you are doing. And then just see what happens.

About Our Guest, Sebastian Dienst

Sebastian is a tech entrepreneur with 10+ of experience across SaaS, Finance and Consumer products. Starting out as Venture Developer at Rocket Internet, Sebastian later joined the founding team of Shore.com – a B2B SaaS Solution for local merchants – which he expanded to the US market, opening offices in NYC and LA. Next to all things Tech & Digital, Sebastian has been passionate about the inner science of mental and emotional wellbeing since an early age. Next to all things Tech & Digital, Sebastian is passionate about inner technologies like mindfulness, neuroscience & spirituality. By founding Remagine, Sebastian fused his passion for technology and finance with his deep drive towards systemic positive impact through shifts in consciousness. 

A special thanks to Sebastian Dienst for taking the time to share his inspiring story with us.

Continue Your Journey

Now it is time to find your own unique path. We can help you to connect with your innate wisdom and create an inspiring vision for a deeply fulfilling and meaningful life. Apply for a discovery session on our website,palmamichel.com.

Learn to meditate with Palma on the MUSE brain-sensing device and receive a 15% discount (will be shown at checkout only) with this link!

Thank You

Thank you for joining us on this journey of the Explorer’s Mind Podcast.

If you enjoyed this episode, there are a few things we would be very grateful for if you would do right now: 

  • SUBSCRIBE to the Explorer’s Mind Podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts 
     
  • Please RATE & REVIEW and let us know what inspired you in this episode
     
  • Finally, we invite you to JOIN the Explorer’s Mind Facebook Group and continue the conversation

Please share this episode with someone you think could be inspired by this episode. 

Until next time, We truly appreciate you listening and look forward to continuing this journey together. 

 

...