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We need a new definition of success—one that harmonizes meaning and money.
Imagine diving into your workday with renewed energy, leaving behind the exhaustion or dread of a monotonous grind.
Traditional beliefs about success and the root cause of burnout are the same:
Prove yourself.
Work harder.
Take care of the business, and it will take care of you.
We’re recycling the mindset and practices that keep us stuck. Our souls need a jumpstart into The Age of Humanity.
Tune in for a new way of working that honors our nervous system and the bottom line, using knowledge of the brain, the Bible, and business. We’ll discuss timeless truths that amplify growth, ignite change, and reshape the world of work. No corporate speak or business BS. Let’s get to the heart of a rewarding career and profitable growth.
We speak human about business.
What’s in it for You?
Value, Relevance, and Impact (VRI): No, it's not a new tech gadget—it's your ticket to making your work genuinely matter to you and your company.
Human-Centric Insights: We prioritize people over profits without sacrificing the bottom line. Think less "cog in the machine" and more "humans helping humans."
I'm your host, Rebecca Fleetwood Hesson, your thrive guide leading you into the new Age of Humanity. I’ve navigated the highs and lows of business and life, from achieving over $40 million in sales, teaching thousands of people around the world about leadership, trust, execution, and productivity to facing burnout, divorce, raising a couple of great humans (one with ADHD), and navigating the uncertainty of starting a business.
I’m committed to igniting change in the world by jumpstarting business into profitable growth with the timeless truths of our humanity.
Sound crazy? It’s only crazy until it works.
Hit subscribe to never miss an episode, and leave a review to help other listeners discover our show.
Want insight and advice on your real career and business challenges? Connect with me on social media or email me at rebecca@wethrive.live. Your story could spark our next conversation.
[00:00:00] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Welcome back to the Business is Human podcast. I'm your host, Rebecca Fleetwood Hession, and we're here to bring you episodes that blend a meaningful work with profitable success. Here to steward what I call the Age of Humanity. I believe if we transform the way we work. We can transform the way that we live.
[00:00:28] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: As always, my friendly request, if you like what you hear, hit subscribe so you don't miss any episode and leave a review to tell the other humans that they might like it too. Always looking to help you and connect with others. All right, let's get into it, shall we?
[00:00:43] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Hey, it's Rebecca. Welcome back to the show. We are gonna talk today about another counterfeit, and this idea of counterfeit is on my mind perpetually because God asked me to write a book about the counterfeit life. I know sounds kind of crazy until you start digging into it, and it is fascinating. So a counterfeit.
[00:01:10] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Is something that looks like the real thing, but it can never give you the real promise or results that you want. Just like counterfeit money. It looks real, but you'll get caught trying to use it, because it's not real. It gives the appearance that it has value, but it's hollow. it doesn't really have value.
[00:01:36] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And so in business and in life, there are many counterfeits it's a counterfeit to true success. It looks like it's valuable, but it's not. And the one that I want to talk about today is, oh my goodness, working harder. It feels productive in the moment, but ultimately. It drains us, disconnects us.
[00:02:02] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And today I wanna talk about not just the impact to us, but the impact that this has on others. Oftentimes people that we really love and care about, and sometimes it's a consequence to others that we're not at all aware of that's happening. what got me thinking about this as a podcast topic is I often host events personally, professionally.
[00:02:35] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Um, a part of. One, my unique gifts and talents. I'm good at it and it's a big part of my life and I get invited to a lot of events. And what I have seen happening more and more and more over the last 10 years is people will not RSVP until the last possible minute or way after you've asked them to respond.
[00:03:07] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And as I've observed and talked to people about it, there's this. I'm so busy that I don't wanna commit to anything because I don't know if I'm gonna be able to show up or I don't know if I'm gonna wanna go when it comes time for it. So there's this huge lack of commitment, which is also a lack of connection.
[00:03:33] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: That is getting worse and worse and worse and worse. And I have experienced it myself, but I think I feel it even more because of this. I've put out a lot of things that require RSVPs, here's the consequence to the person. The people usually planning this event. They've got stuff they've gotta organize.
[00:03:57] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Food location. Handouts gifts. And when you don't RSVP till the last minute, the budget's off. The timing's off. It's a real pain in the ass. Pardon my French. and so I think it's a byproduct. Of we're always working harder and we're always so over committed and we're always so overly activated in our nervous system that we don't have the capacity to even consider that we're gonna be able to attend from a timing perspective or want to attend from an energy perspective.
[00:04:37] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And this goes for. Good, fun things that if you were more regulated in your nervous system would enjoy, but you're questioning whether you have the capacity to even enjoy it. And so our. Always on overly activated. Never taking a break to get our nervous system regulated, leaves us with no capacity to connect.
[00:05:02] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: That's science. That's not moral character. It's not that you are a bad person, it's your cellular system. Doesn't have the capacity to even think that you can add something good to your life and calendar. So that's what got me thinking about it. And then like a lot of things, once I start thinking about something, especially the things that the Lord has me working on, I just started seeing evidence of this consequence to others as a byproduct of being dysregulated in our nervous system, which comes from.
[00:05:42] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Always overworking or thinking that working harder is the answer. The whole, when I get caught up, I just gotta stay and work the weekend. Once I get this project done, it'll be okay. And it just keeps pushing things out further and further. There's, there's never the, space that you think there's going to be because you're not creating this space that would actually give you greater capacity, which would a, actually make you smarter, more creative and more connected.
[00:06:09] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Science, not just my opinion. And so some other things that came up as I started thinking about this were, and this ties to the RSVP thing, is a lot of times when I send out invites for things, people don't read. They skim. So they don't read for understanding. they're overly activated.
[00:06:30] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: They're too busy. And so you're skimming. While people planning these events and this information have gone to great links, usually to make sure that all the information is in there. I mean, sure we miss sometimes, but for the most part, our intent is to make sure every single thing that you need is in that invite.
[00:06:53] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Whether it's something that gets texted to you from an app or an email that gets sent, whatever the case may be and how it gets sent. That's not the point I would say a hundred percent of the time, and you know me, I'll probably start keeping track of it now because we're having this little chat.
[00:07:08] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: I would guess a hundred percent of the time someone will message me, asking me a question that's in the invite, that's in the email that's in there. And look, I don't mind helping a helping a friend out, but it does speak to the problem that nobody's really connecting. With what they're reading with each other.
[00:07:30] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: We're just overly activated, overly working all the time. these are small examples, I get it. But they reveal a much deeper problem. And so we've bought into this counterfeit idea that working more, working harder is the answer when it's actually the problem. If you were taking little micro breaks, if you were starting your day with some stillness, you would have the capability to read a message and receive the information.
[00:08:06] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: But when we're overly activated, you may have read it, but you don't remember what's in there. we're not getting the benefits that we think we are from working harder. and it's so pervasive that it's our belief system that this is what success requires and we can only achieve to our level of belief.
[00:08:33] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And so if you believe. that success means working harder, and I'm telling you that the science says that success is about taking enough breaks and getting enough rest so that you're smarter, more innovative, and more connected. You won't believe the science. Because you've chosen to believe through experience and scripting and all the things in your past that working harder is the answer.
[00:09:01] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: So when I say to you, Hey, I need you to take a break. This happens with my clients all the time. I need you to do daily stillness, micro moments throughout the day. So you build capacity, they fight it because the belief system is that this is wrong, that rest is wrong. I had someone say in a session yesterday, which is brilliant, and she was like, yeah, all of us were raised in jobs.
[00:09:25] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Our first jobs were, if you're leaning, you should be cleaning. ' cause if you've ever worked in a restaurant or retail or anything where you got caught slacking, somebody hands you a broom or something to clean with. you're being paid by the hour. And so even if we're not being paid by the hour, we still have the time, task, and labor.
[00:09:42] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: no lean and start cleaning mindset. Your belief is that working harder is success. It's a counterfeit, it's a lie. It's an old face lie. And so other examples of things that we're doing that cause others that we care about problems because of this belief leaf. Last minute cancellations, not just the last minute RSVP, but the last minute cancellations being chronically late because you got too much on your plate.
[00:10:13] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And I am the first one. And if you know me personally and we've interacted, you know that if you're late for a session with me and you text me and you are just losing your mind because you feel bad that you're late, I am the first one that is gonna say, you are loved, you are safe. And I just. It's fine, don't worry because I'm not here to shame you or guilt you about a belief system that we all bought into.
[00:10:38] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Me included. I'm here to love you and care about you enough to say it's not working, so I'm not gonna shame you if you're late. But the fact is that we all are so overloaded that it does just keep us late often. Just forgetting the details because you don't have the capacity to hang on to them. we say to each other, we should get together, but we don't because we're so overloaded.
[00:11:05] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: and then we feel guilty that we should and we don't. and then professionally we don't prepare for the meeting. we think we're going to, we think we should, we want to. And this happens in sales, it happens in other project meetings. And so we don't come prepared and then we need another meeting and we can't get that meeting on the calendar for three months when it should be right now because the decision needs to be made.
[00:11:33] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: So we now have a project that was due and now it's three months overdue because we all worked harder thinking it was the answer and it's the problem. We are flying through responses in our emails trying to get quote unquote caught up, and so you skim over things. You don't give enough information, you don't give enough context because you're trying to just get to inbox zero.
[00:11:58] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: It's a problem said with love. My gosh, we've all been there. We're all there right now, and I am just begging. Begging enough of us to see that it's a counterfeit, to see that it's a lie and really get more connected to the truth so that we can use business and work to be a blessing, not a curse. I don't want it to be burnout.
[00:12:29] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: I want it to be a blessing because we are wired to show up and have meaningful lives that help one another. There's no place in the world than work to be able to use that work for a good purpose. But instead we have the counterfeit that I just have to work myself into an oblivion and it's all gonna work out and it's not.
[00:12:50] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: I've done it. I'm saying this outta love, not outta shame. Too often we use our title, as an excuse for the chaos that we bring. I know. Just let us sit for a minute. Just know it was delivered with love. it then further exacerbates the lie, the message that success means that you're working harder.
[00:13:12] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And it's okay if you miss some details because my gosh, or the boss, they've got a lot going on. and so you especially either show up to the meeting late. Or having not reviewed the information or even what was the decision that was supposed to be made, that someone invited you to, and they invited you because you're the leader and they need you to make a decision and it gets pushed back.
[00:13:35] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Or you're so busy with emails and things that aren't all that valuable either, that you're not really coaching and connecting with people. if you're not giving them the coaching they need to improve.
[00:13:50] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: They're just continuing to be mediocre or not adding as much value as they could and want to because they're not getting affirmation that they're doing good. Or not. Then we are story making machines. And so in the absence of connection, we're making up stories, wondering and stressing if we're okay, are we not okay?
[00:14:11] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Are we doing all right? Are we not doing all right? So then we work more and double down because we're not really sure. So the answer is always work harder. I'm here to tell you that honoring. The one-on-one meetings with your team and really connecting with them is far more important than inbox zero because what you're really saying to people is, my time matters more than yours.
[00:14:37] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And if you work hard enough, you can get promoted to where you'll be a leader, and then you get to work harder and not connect with people. I know I sound kind of crazy. But the more I observe this happening in my clients and around me with my friends, and it's a joke that this working harder and being constantly activated is the answer to success.
[00:15:01] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: It's not.
[00:15:02] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: So what are we gonna do about it? For the love of everything, holy, you need breaks. You need rest. Rest, and breaks in regulating your nervous system is not lazy. It's true. Leadership stillness regulates your nervous system. And if you can't sit still, which is probably the case, because you are so overly activated, just walk without a podcast, walk without an audiobook.
[00:15:29] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Go stand outside for five minutes before your next meeting. Stop booking meetings back to back. I've said all these things so many times. I know I'm sounding like a broken record, but I will not let this go because I care about our kids, our grandkids. I care about us and the only way that we're going to make this better is if we make it better.
[00:15:57] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: So. Few reflection questions for each day. Where am I unintentionally offloading the cost of my overactivation onto others? Said differently. Where am I leaning on the counterfeit of working harder?
[00:16:15] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Next question to reflect on as a leader. Do I use my role as a free pass or as a call to model humility and clarity and the rest and breaks that you know that you and your people need? Here's another one. I have lots of reflection questions today because me telling you these things won't change things until you believe differently, so I'm just gonna.
[00:16:43] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: I keep working on you until you believe differently. I guess. I'm talking four and five minute breaks in between stuff. How would rest change the way I show up for my family, my team?
[00:16:56] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Maybe even my community. What if you could change the way society is by you taking breaks? What if the ripple effect is that profound, that the seven to 11 people that you interact with on a regular basis, which is kind of the average, that you modeling, taking breaks, and rest in stillness would start a wave of change.
[00:17:20] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: What if. I had a friend business partner message me today asking for my daughter's contact information because she wanted my daughter to do her nails. My daughter runs her own nail business, literally runs her own business, so pays booth rent, it's her business. when she sent this message is a Friday and.
[00:17:40] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: This business partner, client friend, needs her nails done by Tuesday and Monday is a holiday and my daughter is booked like three to four weeks in advance and my daughter doesn't work weekends, even though she's in a service business and she has boundaries like a boss. Because she wants her weekend to rest and rejuvenate.
[00:18:05] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: So she continually loves her job, and there have been a few times, and I love to believe that I've taught her some of these boundaries, but boy has she taken it to the best level possible. There have been a few times where I'm like. Maybe I should work a Saturday morning because there's this belief that, you know, service industry, if you're going to get your nails done, well, she does work evenings, but I had to say to my friend, like, there's a high probability you ain't getting in because she really honors her boundaries.
[00:18:35] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And that's what we want. That's what we want So. Just overall reflection. Who is paying the price for your overactivation.
[00:18:48] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And then am I leaving people in uncertainty or am I intentionally connecting with them so they don't have to wonder and worry? Overall, what if we changed our belief of the counterfeit? That working harder is the key to success, into the belief that the science is right, that the Bible is right, and that having more capacity, more time, and breaks in between the work is the answer to success.
[00:19:23] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: What if. Y'all message me if you have some tips and advice or need some tips and advice on some of these things, I would love to help you and your team would love me to help you. Alright, love you.
Thanks for being here. You can follow us on Instagram, Business Is Human, or TikTok, Rebecca Fleetwood Hession. It's a great way to share some of the clips with your colleagues and friends. Alright, make it a great day. Love you, mean it!