The groups of people often overlooked in our society can, in fact, be the best area to focus a positive business on; after all, a rising tide lifts all boats. In the entrepreneurial world, many underprivileged people are not given the same chance to share their vision with the world. Knowing or unknowing ignorance can put people into boxes, deeming them as less skilled or not worth listening to. Eryn Anitavi knows the specific experience of being neurodivergent in the business world. She’s an autistic and creative visionary, and her business experience goes back to grade school. Sapphire Partners is her fifth venture, and The Sapphire Academy™ is training the future generation of executive support in the most productive environment possible.
When Eryn was 10, she came up with her first business venture. Six years later, she co-founded her first company, which would imbue her with the tools and experience that make Sapphire Partners such a success. How did coordinating and fulfilling orders for window and door packages lead to her ventures in public speaking around leadership, neurodivergence, and executive support? It’s more complex than a linear progression, and a big part of this evolution was her autism diagnosis. Discovering her neurodivergence—or understanding her life under a new framework of neurodivergence—warmed her from the inside.
Since childhood, Eryn kept journals and focused intensely on subjects like French Naturalism and history. She’s lived her life like the movie Yes Man, and part of her philosophy is never allowing herself to default to the rational option. Rationality is not out of the picture, but she starts from outside the box. Understanding her neurodivergence made her even more confident that she does not need to apologize for wrestling Vikings and traveling the country attending steampunk conventions; it guarantees Sapphire’s business longevity. If you’re a business owner, you can probably think of multiple ventures in Eryn’s field that couldn’t keep up with the competition. Still, Sapphire Partners and The Sapphire Academy are here to stay.
Sapphire Partners was built off of Eryn’s personal experience. At a networking event, she was asked if she could spare five hours a week to help another business. The “Yes” to that question grew into a company that provides visionary and flexible support to all manner of businesses in the US. Burnout is too real for many small business owners, who may have to work at least two other jobs to fund the early stages of profit, and executive support from Sapphire has already helped so many business owners ease the pressure on them.
Her team understands neurotypical and neurodivergent leadership because their training is more comprehensive than competitors. Eryn believes that helping the minority—neurodivergent professionals—helps the majority because it trains a generation of comprehensive workers who can adapt to more workplaces. The fixed ‘subscription’ pricing lets businesses accept Eryn and her team’s help in different capacities at various budgets. Additionally, Sapphire’s Clarity Matrix™ blends the company’s human expertise with AI and automation to predict and manage resources and projects. Sapphire Partners executive support is truly customizable.
Eryn supports businesses as a neurodivergent business leader herself. She’s learned from many mistakes; her employees have falsified timecards, and she learned hiring tactics after several bad hires. Today, she knows that the difference between abdication and delegation can make or break a business, and empowering your staff as a team gets you a lot farther than treating employees like tools for a job. She believes in building a life. You don’t need a vacation from being proud enough of your brilliance to inspire you and your team to stay productive and make a profit together. Empathy is more important than the coldhearted idea of a business owner you see on TV because, at the end of the day, you will have to build and maintain relationships in your business life. Sapphire Partners is one way to make those tasks easier.
In the future—and very much in character for Eryn—the company looks to stay outside the box as they expand, even so far as to plan Sapphire Castle in Europe as a retreat. The Clarity Matrix model, with Eryn’s guidance, can grow into the world’s best EOS system and something inseparable from a good business, and Eryn will be even freer to pursue speaking opportunities. She wants to take the stage to let solopreneurs and aspiring neurodivergent leaders know the benefits of executive support, culminating (but not finishing) in a full TED talk. Eryn has many plans for the future, but unlike most of us, she also has in-depth plans for carrying them out. If you believe in Eryn’s outside-the-box thinking as an evergreen business model, check out how she can help you and see if you can get even five hours a week of help.
Published by: Josh Tatunay
