The Importance of Self-Awareness

The last two months have been a whirlwind.

A new relationship. Family visits. New hires. Pressing deadlines. And the early foundations of a new business vertical, launching in 2026.

Momentum has been high and results solid.

But something slipped.

My meditation practice faded. Journaling, once my daily anchor, was optional. I pushed through year-end and got a lot done, but not from a grounded or present place.

It reminded me of something that’s easy to forget:

When awareness drops, our patterns take over.

Earlier this year, I attended a two-day transformational retreat hosted by Paul Vincent at Malibu Lake, California.

The intention was simple: to see beyond the biased filter through which we experience life.

That filter is made up of past experiences, trauma, stories, and belief systems. It shapes how we interpret people, challenges, and what we believe is possible (often without even realizing it).

Paul has a rare ability to help people see that filter while it’s operating.

For a brief window that weekend, I stepped outside of mine.

I experienced what it felt like to relate to life directly, without my usual assumptions running the show.

It opened something in me. A wider field of possibility beyond my conditioning.

And yet, like most insights, it didn’t last.

We can achieve self-awareness in a breakthrough moment. Temporarily.

But to maintain it, it must become a practice.

When we stop creating space to observe ourselves, our default narratives quietly resume control. How we see the world shows up in our reactions, our relationships, the risks we avoid, the ceilings we unconsciously accept.

Without awareness, we don’t really choose our lives. We just repeat them.

Research suggests that while most people believe they’re self-aware, only about 10–15% actually are.

The gap between perception and reality is massive. And it affects leadership, relationships, and fulfillment more than we like to admit.

This insight is one of the reasons Paul’s work has become so central inside the KINN this year.

I’ve watched him work with founders, operators, and leaders across our community, helping them examine a simple but uncomfortable question:

Are your daily decisions being driven by fear, or by purpose and presence?

One KINN member, Janhvi Patel from OurVillage, described it perfectly. She shared that Paul’s approach helped her shift from avoiding obstacles to acting on what truly mattered, by reshaping how she related to her inner world.

Another thing Paul does exceptionally well is help people build rituals, not just insights. Practices that shape both mindset and behavior, so clarity is something you return to daily.

A large part of this is slowing down and appreciating. In the spirit of that, I’d like to share how big the past twelve months have been for the KINN.

This year alone, we hosted 48 Startup Cafés and 48 AI Cafés. Thousands of people moved through our spaces. Entrepreneurs, builders, forward-thinking humans who genuinely want to change the world.

We also doubled our membership, produced our inaugural TEDx Pacific Avenue, onboarded 4 new full time all star employees and launched our new AI Campus hosting a variety of AI workshops and trainings.

From the outside, it’s been a year of undeniable wins.

But here’s the part I’m still sitting with:

I wasn’t fully present for many of them.

As soon as something was done, I was already onto the next thing. The next meeting. Chasing the next milestone.

Paul’s work helped me see the blind spots in how I move through the world: the negative self-talk, inherited beliefs, and subtle fear-based decisions that feel normal until you learn to notice them.

Subtle fears and anxieties kept me from stopping to celebrate or appreciate things. They stopped me from being fully present while projects were in motion.

This was a powerful realization.

In the past six months, we accomplished a lot. And I can see now how much more fully I could have experienced, and maybe even created, if I had stayed committed to that inner practice.

This is why we founded the KINN:

To do meaningful work consciously.

So many people are chasing wins. But if you’re not present to experience them, what’s the point?

Are you really there as you check things off your to-do list?

How much aliveness do you feel when a goal is reached?

The experience matters as much as the outcome.

If we neglect that, everything becomes fleeting. Another box checked. Another year gone.

As I head into this next chapter, I’m recommitting to going inward; to meet responsibility from a more conscious place.

To slow down enough to notice what’s really driving my decisions.

So I’ll leave you with a question I’m asking myself:

What would you do if your fears, limiting beliefs, and negative self-talk were set aside, even briefly?

What relationships would you pursue?

What work would you say yes to? Or finally walk away from?

Awareness doesn’t eliminate fear.

But it gives you the power to see it, and decide whether it gets to lead.

That choice changes everything.

Oliver

P.S. If you’re a conscious entrepreneur and you’re looking to switch into higher gear, our 8-week Founder Sprint Studio kicks off in February. 

→ You can apply for the program here

You’ll be guided by established operators and exited founders to give you the tools, resources and connections to blast through your current business constraints. Limited to 10 founders.

P.P.S. If you’d like to experience one of Paul’s transformational retreats, his next one is in January in LA.

Over 3 days, you’ll break lifelong patterns, unlock new vitality and resonance, and sustain the work long after the retreat ends.