Seed and Society | AI, Agents, and Automation

Jack Alweil went from getting fired as an actuary to building a paid-off rental portfolio and eventually flipping raw land, all while keeping his day job. This episode breaks down how he used creative financing, aggressive debt paydown, and strategic pivots to build real assets that generate income without traditional bank loans or massive capital. In this episode: How Jack used seller financing t...

Matthieu Mehuys, an award-winning author and landscape architect, shares how he turned his expertise in regenerative design into an international business that spans four continents. This conversation explores the business model behind landscape design services, the shift from trading time for money to building scalable systems, and how entrepreneurship creates more lasting impact than grants or d...

Makeda shares how her 10-acre homestead has become a living system that teaches her about grace, patience, and building a life she doesn't need to escape from while maintaining her tech sales career. For service business owners caught between income goals and quality of life, this episode explores how to opt out of hustle culture without opting out of your business. In this episode: Why building a...

Makeda shares why she's building the Connectors Market, a curated resource of tools, systems, and courses she actually uses across her tech sales career, homestead, and family life. For service business owners tired of endless research cycles, this episode explains how she tests solutions across multiple contexts so you can implement faster and build smarter. In this episode: Why Makeda positions...

Makeda records this episode from her homestead garden while planting tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. She connects the slow, intentional work of building a food system to the patience required when building a service business that creates real assets and freedom. In this episode: Why homesteading teaches delayed gratification, the opposite of AI's instant answers but essential when building a bus...

This is part three of Makeda's conversation with Monica Kaufman, certified financial planner. Monica explains how to take ownership of financial systems, why confidence comes from proving to yourself that you can do it, and how raising independent thinkers applies to both parenting and building a business you don't need to escape from. In this episode: Why Monica uses a behaviorist lens in financi...

This is part two of Makeda's conversation with Monica Kaufman, a certified financial planner. They talk about how children absorb money behaviors from their parents, why emergency funds and debt payoff need to happen together, and the legal structures service business owners need to protect their income and family. In this episode: Why financially successful families teach their kids the money sys...

This episode starts a two-part conversation about why wealth isn't the same as income, featuring certified financial planner Monica Kaufman. If you're building a service business with strong revenue but haven't translated that into real optionality, this conversation breaks down how high earners stay financially vulnerable and what to do instead. In this episode: Why Monica shifted her entire appr...

Makeda explains why she grows food and homeschools her kids while working full-time in tech sales. This episode is about reclaiming control over what you eat, how your children learn, and what you're building toward when conventional systems fail to serve your family's actual needs. In this episode: Why the food system is engineered to harm, especially if you're busy, and why growing food is one o...

This episode covers the category of funding most service-based business owners completely ignore: non-dilutive capital like grants, fellowships, pitch competitions, and paid speaking opportunities. Makeda explains why most of this money goes unclaimed, how to build an AI-powered system that finds and applies for you, and why you can start today without waiting for a tool to be built. In this episo...

This episode breaks down how the skills required to build systems on a homestead translate directly into stronger sales performance, strategic thinking, and wealth-building. If you're earning good income but struggling to convert that into actual wealth, time freedom, or compounding assets, these four frameworks will change how you evaluate every financial and business decision you make. In this e...

This episode breaks down the sunk cost fallacy and how it traps service business owners into continuing with dead-end projects, tools, or strategies simply because they've already invested time or money. Makeda shares how recognizing this pattern helped her walk away from a doctorate program after one semester despite a 4.0 GPA, and how the same framework applies to homestead decisions, client rel...

Makeda explains why she pursued her MBA and MS in Data Science not to climb the corporate ladder, but to understand business systems well enough to build ownership and optionality alongside her tech sales career. This episode breaks down the three-question framework she uses to evaluate whether any skill, credential, or opportunity increases freedom or just creates more dependence. In this episode...

This episode challenges the assumption that digital tools create freedom on their own. Makeda argues that physical security (land, water, power, food) must come before digital amplification, and explains why service business owners who build online income without a physical foundation are creating sophisticated dependency, not independence. In this episode: Why digital tools are amplifiers, not fo...

Most service business owners validate their ideas by asking friends and former colleagues if they would buy. Makeda explains why your immediate network is the worst place to validate a business idea, and shares the five-step framework she uses to test offers with strangers who actually have the problem and budget to solve it. In this episode: Why validation through your immediate circle creates fa...

Episode 5: You're Already Selling. Here's How to Do It On Purpose You're persuading, positioning, and advocating every day, whether you're pitching a client, negotiating a contract, or recommending a tool. This episode breaks down why ethical selling is a core business skill and how to practice it with intention so you can communicate your value clearly and build the income and freedom you're work...

This episode helps you figure out which system to build first when you want more ownership, freedom, and leverage but feel stuck on where to start. Makeda breaks down the three types of systems that matter and offers a diagnostic framework to identify the right starting point for your actual life. In this episode: The three core system types: land systems (physical independence through food, water...

Episode 3: "Someday" is not a Strategy This episode is about the difference between waiting for perfect conditions and building systems that create freedom while you're still earning. Makeda breaks down why high income alone doesn't equal security and what to do instead. In this episode: Why waiting for more money, more time, or more clarity is not a wealth plan, and what a real strategy looks lik...

This episode introduces systems thinking as the foundation for building a service business that creates freedom instead of just more income. Makeda explains why high earners still burn out and how to redesign the patterns causing overwhelm instead of just solving surface problems. In this episode: Why systems thinking means seeing how all parts of your business and life interact, not treating ever...

Welcome to Seed & Society —a podcast for high earners, purpose-driven parents, and future builders who want to turn income into ownership. I’m Makeda Boehm, a tech sales exec who used nearly $1M in commissions to buy our home on 10 acres mortgage-free in a rural town with no stoplights—and start building wealth that actually lasts. This show is where I share how we’re building digital income s...

Episode 1: How I Turned $1M in Tech Sales Into a Mortgage-Free 10-Acre Homestead This episode is about how Makeda went from uninsured and underpaid in 2019 to earning nearly $500K in tech sales commissions by 2024, and why she used that income to buy a mortgage-free 10-acre homestead instead of upgrading her lifestyle. If you're earning good money but still feel trapped by monthly payments and end...