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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.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:00:00]:
I'm not coming down. I never locked it on the ground. I'm not coming down. I wanna go higher. Higher than that. Welcome back to the Business is Human podcast, where we discuss strategies to increase our VRI value, relevance, and impact. We're here to blend meaningful work with profitable success. I'm your host, Rebecca Fleetwood Hessian, here to steward what we call the age of humanity, to transform the way we work so we can transform the way that we live.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:00:35]:
As always, my friendly request, if you like what you hear, hit subscribe so you don't miss any episodes, and then leave a review to tell the other humans that they might like it, too. Always looking to help you and connect with others. Let's get into it, shall we? I cannot wait for you to dive into this episode with Becky Beckman from Gibson Insurance as she talks about the kind, kind of helping energy that she brings into her career, which is exactly what we need to hear about from Business is Human. All right, let's go. Becky Beckman, welcome to Business is Human podcast.
Becky Beckman [00:01:14]:
Thank you for having me.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:01:16]:
I'm thrilled to have this conversation because you and I have some history, and I know your heart, I know your intentions, I know your career. And I couldn't wait to have you on the show to share with our listeners the brightness that is Becky Beckman. So you are with an organization called Gibson Insurance, and we're going to talk a bit about your career journey, both with Gibson, but also prior to that, because I love the way that you are creating the conditions for you to thrive, but doing it in the context of making sure that your business can grow and evolve and thrive as well. So I'm ready to dig in.
Becky Beckman [00:02:03]:
Well, thank you for having me here to talk about that, because it has been. It's been a great journey with you and learning, and we have a lot of the same values. So I think that it's going to be great to dig into those things today.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:02:15]:
The context of us having history together is in a lot of forms, right? I've been your coach. I've been your keynote speaker for your events. We have gone for long runs together and had great conversation. You have recommended me to various events with your clients in your community. And it is that culmination of things that brings us to the topic today, which is you have this connection energy. You have this vibe that says, I'm here to help. And it shows up whether you. I've seen you walk into a room where events are being planned that weren't your event, and you say, I'll get that for you.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:03:01]:
And you're grabbing suitcases, you're unpacking boxes, or you're meeting people, and you're saying, I know somebody that can help you with that. And so I really wanted to shine the light of the power of this connection energy in the way that you're using it for your career. Because we are just one person. We're a personal person. We're a work person. But this connection energy is like how you mom, how you career, how you volunteer. It's who you are be saying that. How does that resonate with you? What are you thinking when I say that we didn't rehearse that little intro?
Becky Beckman [00:03:39]:
I think instantly I feel humbled that you're saying that, because I don't typically think through that lens, obviously, as I go into my everyday life, as I wake up, a mom life, you said, and then as we talk about my career journey and path or being helpful. But if you think about how you want to wake up every day and you show up at work and you see someone struggling with something, or do you want someone to help you lift up that box, or do you want someone to connect you to that person that could probably help you through something, that you don't have any clue on how to handle yourself. So I think I just always try to look at everything that I walk into life with from everyone else's perspective and then quickly take all those perspectives and jumble them up in my head and say, what can I do to be best suited in this room for this situation or for this specific person? And I try to emulate that every day.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:04:34]:
And that's what's so beautiful about it, is it's woven into your DNA. It's just who you are. It's not some business strategy that you've read a book or took a class and said, this is what I'm supposed to do, because page 73 says so. It's how you move through the world. And I wanted to bring this to the podcast because there are a lot of people that possess this connection energy that I don't think are using it as intentionally as they could be, because sometimes it just doesn't feel businessy and strategic enough to simply be kind and helpful. And our podcast is Business is Human. And when we bring our human dynamic into business, it is the key to profitable growth. It's nothing separate.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:05:32]:
And so I really wanted to showcase this. And so one of the first things I want to share is the conversation that you and I had when I was operating as your coach, that you looked at your unique gifts and talents, that you were using quite well as a marketing executive for Gibson. I mean, you were running brand transformation. You were serving the entire organization at a high level, making a difference. There was nothing wrong with your career. In fact, it was, for most people like what they would aspire to, that level of influence in an organization and the quality of your work. But there was this moment when we were working together. We were looking at your gifts and talents and this just DNA around helping and connecting and the energy that you bring.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:06:24]:
And you said to me in some sort of format, words, I don't remember the exact words, but you said, I think I could work in a different part of the organization and have more impact. Do you remember those conversations and what was going through your mind or what you're feeling about them now, even in hindsight?
Becky Beckman [00:06:42]:
Yeah, very clearly, I remember the conversations. And I think that even though I know all of this is woven in my DNA, I also think I am a person that is not very risky. I take risks and I try to tend to not overthink. And so when I'm starting to feel that maybe my energy is getting pulled or dragged in a way where my battery's maybe not charging up as fast, or I don't feel like I'm as helpful as I can be or doing something that can be more impactful to someone else, that starts to drain me, actually. And I know I'm an extreme extrovert. I would call myself that. I definitely thrive on the energy being around other people in connection, but I'm also pretty meticulous about staying organized and making sure that my thoughts are fairly clear. So I think that was the bigger motivating factor.
Becky Beckman [00:07:38]:
When you and I were talking, it was like, I just want to do more different. It doesn't need to be bigger. It doesn't necessarily need to be better. I just want to make sure that I continue to have an impact on someone somewhere, so. And that's the approach I've taken as I've switched career paths over the last year.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:07:57]:
Yeah, and this is a great takeaway already for listeners because that feeling of what fills me up and what drains me is a level of awareness that I highly encourage people to observe in themselves because there are certain activities that are going to fill you up and certain activities that are going to drain you. And when it takes longer to recharge your battery, like over time, you just got kind of no more suck it up left to give, and then you just feel this drain, no matter what you were doing in your daily stillness practice or going for your runs or doing all of the regular stuff that you do, it wasn't taking your battery back to full like it used to. You were only just getting like partway there to kind of get through and do a good job.
Becky Beckman [00:08:51]:
Yeah. And who wants that from a business perspective? I wanted to think that through for how could I be more impactful to Gibson? Could we get someone else in my position to have new, innovative, even better ideas than I have to take this to the next level, but then on the same from a personal level as well, making sure that your battery is charged. So where could I make myself just as impactful, more impactful in a different way? However you look at it to the organization while allowing someone else to step into those shoes and continue to innovate, where maybe I wasn't able to provide that anymore because I was feeling drained.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:09:26]:
And that's what I love about the conversations that we've had and the way that we see the world is it wasn't just that you were moving away from something because you wanted something that charged you up. You were saying, and I think this could be great for the organization to have fresh energy in my executive marketing role. And that's what we looked at as me as your coach at that time. And when we are in a role for any period of time, it makes sense that we're going to grow the organization to a point that we may no longer be the best person for the job. And I love the best leaders who can see that and go, you know, what if somebody came in here with fresh energy and we noticed that even the specialties that you have in marketing, which marketing is such a broad context in general, you had done all this rebranding, you had done all this strategic work, and now it needed somebody to come in and bring in different skills. And it's really panned out that way as well, right?
Becky Beckman [00:10:31]:
Yeah, it really has. I mean, our new executive in marketing is exactly what the organization needed from like a strategic growth mindset. And some of the skills that I brought to the table that I still have after my 17 year career in marketing, I still use in my new role. And I know that we'll get there. But as I'm in more of a consulting sales role now, I use all of those tools that I've gained over the last two decades of my career to be able to help my new team and give back to them. And then hopefully, it benefits Gibson, it benefits myself, it benefits my teammates, and then ultimately, my clients, that's what we're doing the work for. So how can we bring that full circle?
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:11:17]:
Yeah. And overarching the message that we want to put out with this episode is our career is not a linear path. It is not a. I got this degree, now I'm going to go do this work and then retire someday. In fact, you've had the opportunity to take a degree in broadcast communications and use it for nonprofit leadership, for food distribution, for executive marketing now and insurance. And now you're in more of a consulting, closer to the sales, in the front line of the organization, and loving it. And all of those experiences have led you to where you can love this career that you're in now. Tell us about the transition that you're experiencing as you've made this shift.
Becky Beckman [00:12:09]:
Yeah, all of those roles. As I think back, it actually kind of made me smile, and I know the listeners can't see me chuckle, but my career journey has been far from linear, and that's okay. But 23 year old Becky probably wouldn't have said that. I probably would have said, oh, my goodness, I just got a broadcast cast communications degree, and I'm working at Channel four, and I don't love it. Is that okay? I just spent all this money. Is that okay? So I took a, you know, I jumped and took a risk and kind of took more of a pr marketing communications job for my first real gig out of college. Right. Which led me to then eventually work more in nonprofit.
Becky Beckman [00:12:47]:
And then I was able to obtain a job with a yemenite, very reputable food service organization here in South Bend, and then back to nonprofit, and then over to Gibson. And so totally different industries, totally different backgrounds. But the one thing that I think wove in between all of those was ultimately just wanting to wake up every day helping someone. And so marketing. What I loved about marketing and what still remains consistent in my sales position today is that people were looking to me to help them find solutions. And whatever the task was, it's planning an event from a marketing perspective, rebranding, having a networking event, pulling people together. It doesn't matter what it was. The list could go on forever.
Becky Beckman [00:13:34]:
As you said earlier, marketing is very broad, but the underlying goal is to be helpful to people. And if I can wake up every morning with that idea that what am I going to do today to be able to impact my client? Or who do I need to make follow ups with? Because I think that they could really utilize our services. I just try to look at it from a different lens because it doesn't feel like work anymore. It feels like, where do I get to help someone? And that's a really different change of pace.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:14:06]:
100%. Oh, my gosh. I want to just pause and let that one sit in people's hearts and minds, because that is the energy that shifts your career in such beautiful ways. I don't care if you are in charge of creating 50 spreadsheets a day and you're sitting at your laptop alone in a cubicle when you're filling out that information, if you do it through the lens of helping, you're asking yourself, how can I make this as accurate as possible? How can I make it as well organized as possible? And thinking about the human that's going to receive the spreadsheet and how your work can make their jobs or their lives better, doesn't that just shift the.
Becky Beckman [00:15:03]:
Whole thing of the work that you're putting into it and the amount of time? I mean, we only have so much time every day to be able to put into our work, into our families, into our personal life. And so it's just being really intentional about how you look at that and what lens you look at that through has become really important to me.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:15:25]:
Yeah, me too. Because I see the benefit of you and so many others that making that shift, I think yours came with your childhood upbringing and your DNA. But for those that are struggling with, my gosh, this job just doesn't feel good anymore. One, you might need to make a change and be courageous like you've done, but you also might just need to shift your mindset to say, who can I help this week? How can I help more people this week? And the act of helping lights up centers in our nervous system that change how we experience the work and how we feel. And what we want is we want making money to feel better. We want our jobs to feel better. We don't just want it to be, we got a paycheck. And then we lived our lives.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:16:20]:
Like, how can we make the work feel better? And this mindset of helping is a significant way to literally, through your nervous system, feel better.
Becky Beckman [00:16:29]:
Yeah, absolutely. And when I wait, I made the shift. So more specifically into, like, health benefits. So the insurance side of the business. From a health benefit standpoint, you know, you have to take a couple of minutes where you sit and think to yourself, like, okay, so how do I make this my own? Now, this is new. This is going to be fun and exciting. And for me, I look at change as fun and exciting most of the time, but it's still scary. Right.
Becky Beckman [00:16:55]:
And how do I make a meaningful impact on my sales team that I'm on? And so thinking through all of those thoughts is where it really got even more interesting. And that's what we talked about a couple of weeks ago was where, how do I connect this to my need to connect with people and then talking that through and just digging into that and how it comes full circle with. Now I'm working with our director of marketing on building out a communications workshop on how I can actually educate employees on their benefits program so we can make everyone healthier. So ultimately, help on help on help, right. But it's good for everyone involved. Like, it's not, it's actually not a sales pitch. It's actually trying to get in there, helping.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:17:42]:
If you do it like that, like you said, helping and helping and helping this person connect to that person in that group, then people want to give you dollars to solve their problems through your products and services. That's what I've always loved about sales and having a background in it. And sometimes people will say to me, oh, sales sounds terrible. And they're thinking about it through the lens of taking advantage of people or forcing people to do something that they don't want to, taking people's money like we're stealing. And that's not at all the experience that I have created and the experience you're creating in a sales environment, which is the more people you help, the more your business will grow. And I love this approach. And when I reached out to you because I knew this was the approach you were taking, I simply wanted to affirm the approach to you because that's another thing we talk a lot about is affirmation. And somebody just saying, I see you, and I think this is great, does so much for our confidence.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:18:51]:
And I knew you were in this change, and I wanted you to hear from me, like, this approach works. Go with it. Go with your gut. Because that's the approach I took when I was selling to HR professionals, is I was selling these consulting services, and a lot of HR people were struggling with a strategic way to help the organization. So without it being a part of my sales, I would schedule these events and bring them a bunch of HR people in together and teach them about business strategy and how to connect their programs to a business strategy and built the most amazing relationships. And that's what you're doing in this situation, which we hadn't even talked about it. It was just like, oh, my gosh, it works.
Becky Beckman [00:19:39]:
Do that.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:19:40]:
And so you're going out and serving and helping your customers with information 100%.
Becky Beckman [00:19:48]:
And I think from the same perspective, that's similar to me working with HR directors and knowing innately all of the stuff, baggage, whatever you'd like to call it, that sits on their plate in an organization every day. You know, some of the hardest working professionals that I've seen are some of these HR professionals that I work with and that no one can know everything and have the time to understand every detail of everything. And insurance can be complicated. And when you start getting into these markets where it's a mid market and you just aren't quite big enough to have someone that's just focusing on benefits or just focusing on new hires or training or all of the different things that falls under their hat. If we can do anything for our current clients, and then even prospective clients, to be able to teach them the ability to be able to communicate with their employees better, they're going to have higher retention, they're going to trust us, Gibson. They're going to trust me because they see that my intentions are actually pure and I really just want the best for their employees. And that's really what I've learned. I don't actually know that.
Becky Beckman [00:20:53]:
A year ago, when you would have asked me when the team approached me about coming over to the consulting on the benefits side, I don't actually know that I would have said any of this stuff that I'm saying right now because it took about a year now I've been in this role and I've just listened a lot. I think that's been really the key, right? Is not just. Not just listening to hear, like actively listening to what these HR professionals are saying. And what I am consistently hearing is that their employees just aren't understanding. It's complicated. Even I don't understand it all. And so what can I do to support them and listen to them and hear them and support their needs, all while doing some of the really great work that we have tenured professionals to do from other solution strategies. But what can I do? Where did I fit into that? Those words that were ringing so many times in my ears that it's like, we just need to educate our employees.
Becky Beckman [00:21:49]:
Our employees aren't electing benefits because they don't understand. Okay, well, let's. Let's teach them. Let's figure it out. Let's talk to them. Let's help them help. That's really where I've been trying to dig in and do the work and just understand the culture behind the organization, the communication strategies. If they don't have those, let's build them.
Becky Beckman [00:22:11]:
Let's do that.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:22:12]:
And the thing that you did with active listening is a helping mindset, because some people might enter into a new role, especially one that has sales goals and quotas and expectations. People might move into that more just like, I gotta dive in here and go, go, go and make sure that I'm pushing all of my strategy to make sure I hit my number. And you took a very different approach. That said, I know I can't hit my numbers if I'm not helping enough people. And I need to first listen and understand who are the people that I'm helping. So when I do show up with my go, go, I can't wait to help you. I'm doing it with a very relevant, impactful connection to these people. And you're right, you couldn't have known what you're doing now.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:23:11]:
In the beginning, you had to spend some time listening and getting to know who the humans were that you were serving. Yeah.
Becky Beckman [00:23:19]:
What impact are we trying to make on them every day? And ultimately, I'm grateful that Gibson has given me the opportunity to be able to find that, to establish that, and to ultimately take my unique gifts and talents, as you call them, and that we've established. And Mary, what I felt were the really, really great things about what I did for the organization and marketing and be able to bring that over on the sales side. So planning events, putting the right people in the room, making those connections, continuing to help my clients with other connections that they might need elsewhere, that's really meaningful. And that's what we talked about in the beginning, charges the battery. So the ability to be able to help me find where my niche is and be able to help people appropriately and support that has been really meaningful to me.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:24:09]:
Yeah, and let's talk about that. Meaningful to you and the energy exchange. Because when we break down, business is human. We are literally breaking down. Like, how does our nervous system work? Like, spiritually, what's happening? Literally, the human nature of who we are as humans. And because you show up with a connection, energy. Ps, our energy goes out 3ft from our physical bodies all the time. So your vibe is literally going out into the community, walking into a coffee shop.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:24:48]:
And your vibe either attracts people or detracts people. And your vibe attracts people all the time because you walk into a space thinking, who and how can I help? So that actually has brought you business because of that energy. Just in random encounters. Share with our listeners some of that story. I know you've got a million of them. But we had one that we talked about recently that I think is really profound.
Becky Beckman [00:25:19]:
Yeah, I had a moment about a month ago. I am looking to just break into a new market. And I was, and this is probably my marketing background coming out a little bit. But how do I reestablish my brand in a new market? You know, my brand super established in South Bend, Indiana. And from a philanthropic standpoint, from all of the nonprofit work I do in the community. But I'm born and raised in Toledo, Ohio. Right. So how do I tap into the energy and my friends and my family that I've built all these connections with for the last 40 years of my life, but how do I tap into that? And so the only way I knew how to do that, first and foremost, was to get coffee and have lunch with my friends.
Becky Beckman [00:26:02]:
Like, that's. That's how it started. I needed to tell my friends what I was doing, and I needed them to hear from my mouth, like, what that meant. And then if they could help me. And people want to help, they really, truly want to help you if you are completely honest and transparent with what you're trying to do. And so I'm just trying to build my brand in another market. So surround myself with people that are philanthropically involved in the community, because I know that's passionate to me. So who can I.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:26:33]:
For connection point.
Becky Beckman [00:26:33]:
For connection. So one of my old high school girlfriends is very well connected in the philanthropic world in Toledo, and she's actually the vp of philanthropy for a nonprofit organization. So I said, we should probably grab coffee. I thought that Amy needed to catch up. Anyways, it had been years since I had seen her and just happened to be in full transparency. I know what company she works for. Would they be a great client for us? Probably great, right? That's great. But I did not go into that coffee meeting at all trying to think about how I was gonna sell to her, how I was going to try to get a contact from her, any of that, which would have been ick.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:27:17]:
I mean, this is what I mean. What, did you play softball with this girl growing up? And it's like you show up with your shiny brochures, like, at the table waiting on. It's like, ew. Ew. That is not a human approach.
Becky Beckman [00:27:30]:
No, not at all. And so I thought to myself, like, truthfully, that wasn't even actually even in my radar. I really just wanted to have coffee with her. But I did know where she worked. I knew all of those things. And we were having coffee, just catching up about family and what I'm doing, you know, what am I actually doing back in Toledo, and how South Bend and work and life. And literally in that moment, we are talking in walks the HR, their HR director for her company, right? For her nonprofit organization that's over 500 employees. So it's a really, really wonderfully established organization in Toledo.
Becky Beckman [00:28:08]:
And she walks up, and Shannon looks at me and says, you're not even gonna believe it, but that's my HR director. That's who I would introduce you to if I was gonna introduce you to someone within the organization. And I just kinda sat there for a moment. Obviously, I said hello and smiled, and then she left. Shannon and I continued. But as I drove home, this is what I shared with you. I thought to myself, I'm in the right place at the right time with the right energy. And if I wasn't supposed to be here, things wouldn't keep aligning the way that they're aligning.
Becky Beckman [00:28:42]:
And if I'm still not supposed to be here, God will tell me at some point, right? I mean, it will become apparent that this is probably not the road I should be going down, but for now, I will continue on that path. And it was. It was a weird, you know, you. You have some of those moments you remember in life, but it was a weird moment. I was driving to the car, from that coffee to another meeting, and I just. And it was beautiful day. And I just kind of thought to myself, I just felt kind of chills, in a sense. Like, that was really cool that that connection all came together right there.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:29:15]:
The chills, like, feeling it in your body, is the way that our nervous system is designed to inform us. And when we get so busy and so stressed that we no longer are in our bodies, we're only in our minds. We're just constantly thinking. We're not feeling and experiencing. You're not in that open connection energy that you need to have those experiences that draw the right ideas or people into your life for what you, why you're here, the purpose that you're here for.
Becky Beckman [00:29:57]:
Yeah. And in that moment, too. And I love her for it. And I won't use her names, but because she knew in that moment, after the introduction, she blurted out something that she could really use that had to do with my business. And now we've made connections afterwards, and she's a very lovely woman, and we actually have family members that know each other, and so all of the right reasons to work with someone, but it all happens because of the just not overly pushing and being very transparent with what I'm trying to accomplish and who I want to be is really important.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:30:31]:
I made that note when you said it. You said, I went to my friends and I told them what I'm doing with my own mouth. And here's why that is so profound in the world of social media, in the world of text, and in the world of online communication. Listen, I love me some text, and I love me some LinkedIn and Instagram. It has been beautiful for my business and my life, but it doesn't have that same power of sitting down, heartbeat to heartbeat, eyeball to eyeball, with your friend from the day and saying, here's what I'm doing. Because she could feel your needs and your desire and your trust and your energy, and you needed to share what you were trying to accomplish by establishing a brand in that market. Like, that's. That's a very different conversation than sending a blast text out to the 50 people in Toledo, Ohio, that you know, that says, hi, Becky, long time no talk.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:31:39]:
Wanted to let you know I'm working for Gibson. I can help you. If you want to talk, let me know. That will go zero. In fact, somebody will read that and go, ew.
Becky Beckman [00:31:51]:
And would I want to get that text? I don't want to have that text.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:31:55]:
Don't give me that text, anybody.
Becky Beckman [00:31:57]:
I just. I think it all comes back to, and we, you and I have had multiple conversations on this front, too. Is just real self awareness on what your mission is and what you can really be helpful for other people and. But self awareness on what everyone else's needs are, too. And then trying to tie the two of them back to one another and then add in a little bit of likeability. I try to be kind to people and nice to people as well, but ultimately, it was really about me establishing my brand and making sure they understood that it was more. And it still is more important to me right now to show up and for someone to say, you know what? I saw you at that nonprofit event, and then let me ramble on for 15 minutes about why I'm so passionate about this nonprofit board that I'm on. Right.
Becky Beckman [00:32:46]:
That's probably more impactful, because then they feel the passion that I have for you, connection to you, and then the trust happens. Many conversations before we ever talk about insurance, right?
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:32:56]:
I mean, it's do send blast text once in a while. Like, if I'm launching a new book, if you've ever met me, you are getting a text asking you to buy this book. I'm okay with doing that, but I want it to be because I've already established some sort of relationship where if I send you something, you remember, oh, she's that one. That's the badass women's counselor. She loves that nonprofit. I met her at that event. I want it to be because we had some sort of human to human connection that they do like me. Trust me, I've been kind to them.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:33:31]:
Then it feels okay to send a text to say, I'm launching a new book, if you like. I'd love you to take a look. I think that's okay.
Becky Beckman [00:33:39]:
Yeah.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:33:40]:
But just blindly having not connected with somebody is kind of off.
Becky Beckman [00:33:46]:
I agree with that. And literally the same weekend meetings, I met with another woman just for coffee because I was told that she would be a great person for me to meet, never with any intention on asking her for anything. And then how quickly. Her daughter graduated from St. Mary's here in south Bend, and she's here right now at Notre Dame, and I took her to lunch last week, and now I have this wonderful connection, and I still. I don't know. Maybe there'll be a client someday. I mean, maybe I should be doing my.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:34:14]:
I forgot about that story. So let's break that one down, because that one was really good, too. You met the mom through a work interaction?
Becky Beckman [00:34:23]:
It was, yeah. Actually, I invited her to come to coffee because someone suggests that she would just be a really great person who's been in the industry, the HR industry, for a long time. So just maybe you should reach out, ask her if you can grab coffee. Well, she also graduated, but I did a little homework. You got to be kind of smart, right? She graduated from Adrian College like I did, so that was my entry point to talk.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:34:46]:
You brought that up in conversation.
Becky Beckman [00:34:47]:
Would you have coffee with me? As a fellow Adrienne grad, she's obviously had a really wonderful career, and she knows it. I mean, every. Multiple people have told me I should meet this woman. And ultimately, when we had coffee, I had. I seriously went into that coffee with no ask, no sell, no anything. Just. I really truthfully wanted to get to know her.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:35:07]:
Human to human.
Becky Beckman [00:35:08]:
Yep.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:35:09]:
How can I help you?
Becky Beckman [00:35:09]:
Human to human conversation? Can I do anything for you? She said the same to me.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:35:15]:
Well.
Becky Beckman [00:35:15]:
And the end of the conversation, she said, well, my daughter just graduated from St. Mary's and is attending a master's program at Notre Dame right now. Would you be interested in meeting her? Because I'd love for her to get involved in the South Bend community. Yes, obviously, like, that's my passion. So I took her daughter to lunch a couple weeks ago and stayed in touch with her. And obviously I'm going to connect her to whoever I can connect her to. And then I just thought to myself, which probably should fell up with her, but like, I never, there was never, there was never a catch.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:35:47]:
Yeah. It wasn't manipulative. You didn't think to yourself, well, I took your daughter to lunch. Now when am I going to get some business? You went in with energy that says, I want to help you. She read that energy so clearly and trusted you enough to introduce you to her daughter. Like, what other level of trust do you need than. I mean, the utmost trust to introduce you to their childhood. And all you could think about was, how can I help this young lady get established in her career, in her community? And does that feel good?
Becky Beckman [00:36:26]:
It feels exactly what I want to do every day. Right. And then ultimately what I'm watching and what I'm seeing and what I'm feeling within the organization, it comes full circle. I don't have to push. Like you said, we all have sales goals. We all have outreach as we do. But ultimately, in order to establish your brand, your credibility, your trust, all of the things that are human and allow people to want to even do business with you, that has to come first, and it will come full circle.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:36:57]:
And so if you're listening to this and you're thinking, okay, I've got this list of prospects or people that I'm supposed to reach out to for my. I got to go to my reporting meeting on Friday and tell how many conversations I've had or how many phone calls I've made. That's a standard part of control measure, optimize in business. I'm not mad about that. We as leaders need to do that. But what we're saying is when you look at that list, do a little bit of homework, are there connections to these people that you can ask for an introduction versus just cold calling them? And even with, if you are reaching out to them cold, maybe that's all you've got. If your mindset is, I can't wait to get in touch with somebody at ABC company today because I'm really curious how I can help them. And if your vibe and energy starts the conversation with that versus I got to make my six calls today because I got a report on Friday.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:38:05]:
Those are two different jobs. Yeah, they may have the same title, they may have the same everything. But how you approach them is two different feelings and two different experiences.
Becky Beckman [00:38:17]:
Yeah. And I think it comes back to the storytelling side of things, right. If you're able to somehow connect and build that connection with someone, whether it's from a cold email to a phone call or some sort of connection, then you're doing the right work. And if that's hard and that's not something that comes super naturally to you, I think you'll probably struggle with being able to make those real connections with people because it is human and it's not just about the numbers all the time.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:38:46]:
It makes me think about this past Christmas, my daughter selling shoes in a retail store in the mall, but she also makes commission. And I gave her some shout outs on social media connected to my network of people who were the exact target market to buy the Ugg slippers that she was selling for the Christmas season. And she called me one night. I was on a trip down to Nashville to see her brother, my son, and she was giddy. It was like 930 at night. She was giddy with excitement. She was on her way home from work and I said, what's going on? She was like, you're not going to believe what happened today. And I was like, what? And she was like, well, one of your people that you put the post on Facebook, they reached out to me and they had a good experience.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:39:37]:
So they introduced me to, it was like, I don't even know how many people that day because they were all like, trying to get their Christmas shopping done. These are busy professionals. And my daughter Auburn was like, yeah, I can help you. And went out of her way even after she got off work, to have conversations with these people and do all these things. And one of them had sent a message, this is going to make me cry. One of them had sent a message that said, you're our Christmas angel. Because we were so stressed out about how we were going to get all of our shopping done. And you helped all of us today.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:40:13]:
And what I got emotional about is how that felt to my daughter. It wasn't just a, I closed this many deals, I made this much money, I met my paycheck goals, and my boss is happy. She felt good because she was, wait for it, helping. She was helping. Somebody feels very different than somebody that just walks in off the street and buys some shoes and gives you the money and leaves. And it's a beautiful experience. My son just had a similar, he works at Guitar center in Nashville. And I, this young up and coming artist, I don't know how young he is.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:40:54]:
But this up and coming artist, Cameron has struck a friendship with him in the store, selling him equipment, but doing it from that helping vibe. I think my son's going to get an opportunity to go out on tour and be his guitar tech on tour with this guy, because he called his tour manager and said, find something for Cameron to do. I love his vibe. That was it. I love his vibe because he's helping.
Becky Beckman [00:41:19]:
Yeah. Like you said, it's the energy that comes from going into your everyday work with that in mind and that perspective in mind to the opposite. Right? I mean, think about doing all of the things opposite of that. It's gonna be draining.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:41:36]:
Yeah. Oh, my gosh. This was so good. One more thing that just came to mind. I'm one of those crazy people that not only loves to, like, dig into what words mean, but even when I'm studying, like, I read the Bible every day and I went and got a Hebrew dictionary because I really want to, like, get into the etymology of what it all means. And the word work and worship is the same word in Hebrew. And so when I look at the history of work, work was actually always meant to be a helping service to one another. We're meant to live in community, which is why it lights up.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:42:16]:
That feeling that you had by helping is what we all are wired for, but we've taken it too far to the, it's about the money making model, and it's about achievement. It's all independent. That's not actually the way we were designed to live and work. We were designed to work, to serve one another in a way that was helping. And then we get paid for that product or service because we've helped somebody. And, boy, I tell you, your example, my kids, my own life, it is a way different way to live. And it's a beautiful, beautiful.
Becky Beckman [00:42:52]:
We just said it at the same time, but it's a beautiful way to combine your talents. And I don't even, talent might not even be the right word, but it's just knowing and being really self aware of what you're good at and how you can help people and being able to do that every day. And hopefully, we all want to make money. We all want to make a living. We all need to do that, right?
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:43:15]:
Yeah.
Becky Beckman [00:43:15]:
And where we said earlier that that just feels different, it hits differently. And so, yeah, that's been my experience over the last year.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:43:24]:
I'm so excited to see where else it goes. So if I were to recap quickly, just stream of consciousness, what you've shared today is self awareness. You knew when you were charged up and when you weren't charged up and courageously took action on that, you bring a connection energy. You bring that vibe of how can I help you? That likability factor is a key to your career. You went into this new role, and anything that you do, you go into it with active listening, you go into it, how can I help you? Who are you? What do you need from me? And then you courageously are going out and sharing your story and sharing who you are and your brand and what you're trying to accomplish. And just those things are actions that people can take starting today in their career to reach out with that helping connection energy and see how it changes how the work feels.
Becky Beckman [00:44:21]:
Yeah. And if anyone is having those feelings inside that you're feeling curious and you're feeling a little drained and you might want to try something new, I do recommend to try to be courageous and step outside of your comfort zone, because ultimately, if you make a mistake, that's okay, I guess, is what I'm saying. Can always find something else to do. But how will you know until you try? And so don't be scared to take a risk and be courageous to step outside of your comfort zone every once.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:44:49]:
In a while getting a little unstuck.
Becky Beckman [00:44:51]:
Try something different.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:44:53]:
Awesome. I love you. You're the best. Thank you for being here and sharing your story.
Becky Beckman [00:44:57]:
Yes, thank you for talking to me and being such a great coach over the years.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:45:02]:
Thanks. And I highly recommend for people to connect with you on LinkedIn. Becky Beckman at Gibson Insurance, you do a lot of great webinar events, things that people can participate in. Your organization as well is very helping and outreach oriented. So follow Becky.
Becky Beckman [00:45:19]:
She's got stuff.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:45:20]:
Yeah, absolutely.
Becky Beckman [00:45:20]:
I'd love it. Send me a message.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:45:23]:
Thanks so much. Thanks for listening to this episode. I would love it if you would go to Apple podcast and leave a rating and a review, and then you can go to rebeccafleetwoodhession.com and join the Badass Women's Council. And if you really want to take a deeper dive, join the movement of a thousand thriving women. There's amazing thrive tools there for you today. Love you. Mean it. I'm not coming down.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:45:55]:
Hey, y'all, fun fact. If you like the music for the podcast that is actually my son, Cameron Hession, and I would love it if you would go to Spotify and iTunes and follow him and download some of his other music. My personal favorite is TV Land.