Entrepreneurs who value compassion and empathy, have you heard these common myths about the impact of love and empathy in business?
Are you ready to uncover the truth and unlock the full potential of your business?
Here are three myths that may be holding you back: Love and empathy are weaknesses in business, Being successful means putting profit above people, and Showing vulnerability is a sign of incompetence. But fear not, as we'll reveal the truth behind these misconceptions and show you how love and empathy can be powerful tools for success in business.
In this episode, you will be able to:
Love is actually the missing piece in business.
The resources mentioned in this episode are:
Take the Leadership Style Quiz!
https://freedomseekhersway.com/leadership-type-quiz/
Entrepreneurs who value compassion and empathy, have you heard these common myths about the impact of love and empathy in business?
Are you ready to uncover the truth and unlock the full potential of your business?
Here are three myths that may be holding you back: Love and empathy are weaknesses in business, Being successful means putting profit above people, and Showing vulnerability is a sign of incompetence. But fear not, as we'll reveal the truth behind these misconceptions and show you how love and empathy can be powerful tools for success in business.
In this episode, you will be able to:
Love is actually the missing piece in business.
The resources mentioned in this episode are:
Take the Leadership Style Quiz!
https://freedomseekhersway.com/leadership-type-quiz/
00:00:08 Hey, good morning everybody and welcome to another episode of The Unlocked Show. I'm your host, Tracy Wilson. I'm going solo this morning. I know that you guys were waiting for me to have the amazing guest Kim Sorel on with me this morning, but unfortunately at the last minute, Kim's not able to make it. So I thought, well, why the heck?
00:00:25 What a great topic to talk about. What a great topic in terms of what does love actually have to do with anything or have to do with business? I thought, why don't I just jump on and start talking about this. Anyway, so I have renamed today's show and I'm going to talk about why I think love is actually the missing piece in business and what sort of things can we do to incorporate that into our brand and into our messaging. Like I said, I thought it was a great topic.
00:00:51 I'm seeing when we talk about love, we often think a bit mushy doesn't really fit in alignment with business. But why not? Why does it not fit? There are some of us a little bit sick of the old traditional ways of doing business, which is all about looking at our bottom line and doing things based on metrics. Why can't we get a little bit mushy and add a bit of love into the mix?
00:01:16 So let's just kick off and let's just talk about that. So again, why is love often overlooked in this business world? And when I sort of stopped and I didn't have Kim coming on the show and I thought, what the heck, I'm just going to do this show anyway. Sort of sat down with my pen and paper and just wrote a few notes and I thought, I'm just going to share all of those with you today. So like I mentioned it a little just a few moments ago, the traditional way of doing business, or the traditional business model focuses a lot on profits and our metrics, rather than emotional connections with customers or with employees or even with ourselves.
00:01:53 In business, we often don't always look at how do we love ourselves in the business realm. We are constantly slogging away and even a lot of what we talk about is grind and hustle until your kind of fingers bleed or your eyes bleed. And we don't often think about is that actually really loving ourselves? And I like to say, well, probably isn't if you're slogging your guts out and you're sort of feeling like you're getting nowhere or running yourself into the ground. So we talk about love being the missing piece in business.
00:02:27 Why is that? Well, it's often because it's one of those mushy things that often people look at. It's a soft or an emotional concept that in the traditional world has said it's got no place here in this cutthroat world of business. And many business leaders actually prioritize their profits over their people and they see emotions as a liability rather than an asset. And if I think back to my days, being in the corporate world would even be things that I would have heard around.
00:02:58 Leave your baggage at the door, leave that meaning leave all of your emotions, leave all of your stuff that's going on at home, leave all of that other crap at the door because there's no place here in this business for your emotions to kind of take over. And so in the traditional world, we often see those emotions as a liability rather than an asset. However, in the entrepreneurial space, we're starting to see this mindset shift. We're starting to see there's a change in entrepreneurs actually realizing the value of creating an emotional connection with their customers and with their employees and again, even with themselves. And you often see that in things like how do you take care of yourselves?
00:03:42 Meditation, visualization, taking a client of mine called Five minutes for me, taking five minutes out of your day to really focus on yourself and love yourself. So there's all sorts of things that we're starting to see being incorporated into business. And I'm going to go as far as saying we're even seeing this in government legislation. Here in Australia, there's been some new legislation passed around, mental illness and mental health of employees. So we're really starting to see that shift in businesses or business leaders starting to take this side of things, side of business really seriously because they're starting to see that this emotional stuff that loving one another, being kind, all of those wonderful things actually do make a big difference to a business's bottom line.
00:04:34 I'm really interested to know from you guys if you're tuning in today, let me know in the comments today, what sort of things do you do to incorporate love into your business or if you're working for somebody else, how do you see that being incorporated into the business in which you work for? So when a business actually prioritizes love, they can then start to create a culture of empathy and compassion. And you see that kind of allowing your brand, your overall business, the people within it, being able to connect with your customers and your audience on a much deeper level. You're even seeing this with like content creation when you're seeing people really talk honestly and being very vulnerable in what they talk about because they're then getting to the sharing, the crux of what's going on with them and it's really connecting with their audience at a very deep level. So I think you're starting to see that and that emotional connection can actually start to lead to increased loyalty.
00:05:40 So these are some of the things that you'll see as you start to incorporate this into your business. So an increased level of loyalty with your customers, higher engagement and ultimately you're going to start to see that in your bottom line because it will start to translate into more sales. So what we want to think about here is the fact that love is not just a feel good concept. It's not just a mushy thing that we should be thinking about. It's actually a really powerful tool that can help us to build our business and grow our business on a much bigger level.
00:06:12 So I want to give you a couple of examples here of some businesses who have really taken this on board and they've incorporated this into their brands. There's two that kind of come to mind. The first one is Patagonia. So Patagonia is a company that has always been committed to environmental causes. Their customers are really loyal.
00:06:32 Their customers are loyal because they know that the company actually truly cares about those environmental issues. So they really speak to their customers where they're at. Their customers are also the kinds of people that are interested caring about environmental issues. And the company has gone as far as now even donating 1% of their sales to environmental causes. So they've really taken the concept of who are they about?
00:07:02 What are they going to be? And then taking that even one step further and giving back to other organizations that are in alignment with what they're about. The other company that comes to mind is a beauty company and that's Dove. So when you look at Dove, they've actually been committed to promoting positive body language for women for forever. And they've created numerous campaigns around this.
00:07:28 They've focused on self love, body positivity, no matter what size, what color, what race, et cetera you are. They've really focused on that. And they've even launched a self esteem project that is aimed at young girls. So you can see that with those two companies you can kind of take on board or you can start to see how they have taken this concept of love that you would typically see in a family environment. We talk a lot about that in families but it's not really a word that's heard a lot in business.
00:08:01 But they've definitely taken that on board. They've looked at it and gone, well, how can we incorporate that into our business? And then they have gone ahead and incorporated it by doing the things that they do, by being very true to who they are and making sure that the brand that they are creating is got elements of love with it. Now, I also want to share, kind of share a couple of, I suppose personal stories about this sort of stuff. And I think about the clients in which I work with and this might be at a really if you think about what you can do but sometimes it's even at the most basic level, clients will stay with you and you typically have clients that like to stay with me.
00:08:43 I've had some for five years and they come back over and over and over again to deal with me on various different levels. And what I try and do is there's this kind of, I'm going to say, misconception about bringing business clients or business associates or people that you deal with in business and bringing them into your world of friendship. And I think it's really important that when you're dealing with clients, that you get to know them on a deep enough level, that you know who they are, what makes them tick, what's important to them, what sort of things they like, what about their family. And when you can do that and you can start to be really empathetic and understanding towards the things that they've got going on in their world, that's another way that you can bring love into your business. And what I've seen by doing that is, again, like I mentioned, those clients stay with me.
00:09:42 They tend to come back for a long over and over again because they know that I truly love them, that I love what they're about, that I actually really care about what it is that they're doing. And when you have that level of depth and relationship with your clients, then you're able to get past anything. So if any issue comes up, you build such a relationship that you're able to talk about it. And I think about even marriage and a long term relationship. Most of you have been following me for a while.
00:10:15 You know, I've been with my husband forever in a day. How do you do that when you got together at such a young age? The same thing. Through trust, through communication, through understanding one another, through having empathy. So if you can take all of those things that make a really strong relationship and you can infuse those into your business, then you've got the makings for a really solid business that has longevity.
00:10:43 Because no matter what's going to happen in the environment, in the economy, those clients are always going to come back to you. You're always going to have a nice foundation to continue your business from. So I think it's really important. I've certainly found it important for me to do that and then to incorporate that sort of stuff into your brand and your messaging. So this would start right at the guts of what you're about.
00:11:12 So your mission and your values so your mission and your values really should be the foundation of your brand. They reflect your love and your appreciation for your customers. So you want to think about that when you're writing your mission and your value statement. How can you infuse love into that? How do you infuse your love and your respect and your appreciation for your customers and your employees into your mission and your vision statement so that it's actually echoed or resonated through every single thing that you do?
00:11:46 The other thing that you can do is you can use storytelling. Storytelling is a fantastic way to be able to really connect with your audience on an emotional level. Now, I mentioned this a little bit earlier where I said that content creators get very vulnerable. We're sharing lots of sometimes very personal things to get that connection with your audience. And it's not through being creating a story because you only want to connect with your audience and you think that's the one story that's going to draw the people in.
00:12:19 Because even if you do that and you're not in alignment and the other things that you do in your business are not in alignment with how you drew them in, you're going to come unstuck. So your storytelling, if you're going to be vulnerable and you're sharing very personal stories, you want to make sure that they're absolutely true. So you want to share stories about how your business actually made a difference in people's lives or how your products and services have actually helped your customers. I mean, using client testimonials case studies, they are a fantastic way of being able to share and more importantly, sharing your customers wins. So if you've got anybody that's working with you, if you're a coach or consultant, you've worked with someone and they've had an amazing result, you want to be sharing that and celebrating and being their biggest cheerleaders alongside them and making sure that you are also supporting them wherever you can.
00:13:13 You can use that to showcase your love, your appreciation for your audience on an ongoing basis. The other thing that you can do is you want to make sure that you're showing empathy. So empathy is your ability to understand and share the feelings of others. So it's a really important trait in business, a really important trait for business owners to actually have. And it can be a really powerful tool for building relationships with your customers and your employees.
00:13:41 When you show empathy in your messaging and your branding, you acknowledge the challenges and the struggles that your audience might be having, right? So when you're showing empathy, you might say, gosh, I know that you might be really struggling with this right now, and I've got a potential solution for you. This is something that I've struggled with in the past and this is how I overcame it. So I want to give you an example of that. So I teach a lot of people how to go live, how to do these kinds of shows, in most cases without a whole raft of notes.
00:14:14 They just have a few bullet points that they then can be very, very confident in being able to speak to a camera like this with. And most of them that come to me are absolutely want to say shit, scared of doing that, shit, scared of just pushing go live. They do not want to do it. They are nervous as heck. But by showing them empathy and even showing them some of my early shows on where I was nervous and I had a quiver in my voice and sweaty palms and all those sorts of things, when you can show that, you can show empathy and you can show that, hey, look, I've been there too.
00:14:50 And if you follow me and I give you all the steps and I hold your hand along the way, you too can get good at whatever it is. XYZ so sharing those challenges, those struggles and showing empathy for your customers will also be a fantastic way of being able to infuse love into your business. Now, I talked a little bit about this particular point a little earlier on in today's conversation, but it's about being authentic. Authenticity is absolutely key. And I mentioned this when I talked about storytelling, storytelling online and making up stories just because you think it's a nice thing to say, probably not a good way to go about things.
00:15:36 You want to be very authentic. So that is a key when it comes to incorporating love into your branding and your messaging. Your audience can absolutely tell when you are not being genuine, why they will see right through you. So if you say one thing and you do something completely different, they will notice. So I've even been to events where an MC has got up and spoken about a particular thing and said all of these wonderful things that sounded fantastic when they were on the stage.
00:16:09 But yet when you get off and you look behind the scenes, some of the things that they're doing are not in alignment with what they said. Totally disingenuous. So you will be found out if you're not being genuine or not being authentic at any part of the process. So you just want to bear that in mind and make sure that you are being absolutely authentic and just think about who you are, what you do, what matters to you, and how you can communicate that in a way that aligns with your business mission and vision. And then of course, last but not least is just using positive language.
00:16:46 You want to make sure that the language that you've got in your messaging and in your branding can actually have a really big impact on your customers and how your audience actually perceives you. So if you're using a lot of negative language, you're talking negatively about other people or other brands, then that says a lot about you. You're going to start to see, people will have this negative thoughts about you. That's what they will start to think. If you're speaking poorly about somebody else or you're speaking poorly, the language that you're using is not positive.
00:17:18 It's in a negative context. Most people will continue to they will tune out. They don't want to be there. Most people want to listen. They want to listen to particular on a show or on a podcast or through your brand messaging.
00:17:32 They want to be uplifted, they want to be fulfilled, inspired. They want to be educated and entertained. So you want to make sure that when we're doing that, that we're using positive language in doing so because that reinforces your love and appreciation for others. If you think about it, if you're wanting to show love to your family members, you're not speaking poorly at them, you're not using cuss language, you're not using derogatory things, you're speaking really positively and you're building them up. So I don't think it should be any different when you're speaking with your clients or with a potential audience in any medium.
00:18:14 So whether it's in a written form, it's online like this, it's in a podcast, whatever the case may be, we want to make sure that we're using really positive language because as we know, that negative language can actually turn people away. So we've covered a fair bit of stuff today. I'm just going to do a short show, just a couple 20 minutes or so on this particular topic, but I really do think it's an important one. And when we think about love and its totality, how do we use that? I want you to guys to think about how do we use that in our business?
00:18:49 Because if we do that in our business, then our customers are going to feel that way. One would hope that your positivity, your love for them will rub off, even if it's just a little bit. And they will then in turn show that somewhere else, whether it's back to you or it's back to somebody else, and they see these things happening in your business, then they're more likely to adopt them and implement them in their own business. And before long we start to see this ripple effect, this ripple effect of there being more love, more encouragement, more empathy for one another than there is dragging people down, being negative, et cetera, et cetera. What's quite interesting about this too, is that when I look at my podcast, I did an episode a little while ago with Dr.
00:19:39 Garland and it was about Tall Poppy syndrome and about the fact that we can often get into the space we're being pulled down by other people. So I'm just imagining a world where everything we do is infused with positivity. It's infused with love. What a difference you could make. What a difference the world could be.
00:20:04 I was out just before I tune out today because as I do these shows, I haven't scripted this, but just different things come to mind. And I was out with my granddaughter at their place on Monday and we popped out there to help my daughter in law just get on top of a few things around the house because my son now is working away. So John and I, my husband just popped out there and we thought, well, we'll mow the lawns and we'll do her housework and just get things in order to make it a little bit easier for her. And when my granddaughter came home from school, she said, NAN, can you give me a hand? Can you help me with something today?
00:20:39 I said, yeah, what's that, babe? She said, I need to write a speech, I need to write a presentation for school. And I said, okay, well, what is it about? And she read me off. She said, I've got some topics that I could talk about and one of the topics that was on her list that she could write about was about charity.
00:21:00 Charity starts at home. And it was quite interesting because as her and I jada is her name, as her and I were having this conversation about what it means to be charitable. We're talking about imagine a world where love was everywhere, where people did things for other people, not because they did it because they wanted to get something in return, or they did it because they wanted to get paid. They did it because it was the right thing to do, or that it felt good. And then we started talking about how that charity starts at home.
00:21:37 And today's show, as I was preparing to have Kim Sorel on the show today, and I was reading up about it and I'm like, yeah, what an interesting topic this is. So even though Kim wasn't able to be here with us today, we'll definitely have her back at some other point because she's written a couple of amazing books. She's got a really, really interesting story. I thought, what the heck, I'm going to go live and I just want to talk about this topic anyway because it is such an important thing. So I hope that today you have listened.
00:22:08 Maybe you've taken some things on board. You can go away. And if you are an entrepreneur or a business owner, you can look at your mission statement, you can look at your vision statement. You sit back and just take five minutes to think about your brand, think about the business that you have, and just ponder and wonder whether or not you actually have love incorporated into it. And I would love to hear from you.
00:22:33 If you can find five ways that you have incorporated love into your brand and into your business, I would absolutely love to hear about it. And tune in for the next episode of the unlock show because like I said, I'm going to have Kim back at some other date and I'll keep you guys posted with that. But we do go live every single Wednesday at 10:00 a.m.. So I've got another amazing guest next week. You know, what if at the last minute the guests don't show up?
00:23:00 Well, you'll get me. I'll just go live. And we'll be talking about something else interesting that will help you move forward and bring together your business and your life so that you can live an amazing one that is absolutely unlocked to be able to do whatever it is that you want with your life. So anyway, guys, thanks very much for joining me for this very impromptu episode today, and I look forward to seeing you guys again next week for another episode of the unlock show. Until then, if you found this episode useful, if there's somebody in your business life or your life that you love, share this with them.
00:23:37 Even if it is just to say, hey, I think you're doing a great job. I really appreciate having you in my life. If that's all it is to say, then go ahead and do that. But other than that, I'll see you guys again next Wednesday. Live your life unlocked, because there's just no other way.
00:23:53 Bye for now.