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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?
[00:00:42] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Welcome back to the Stand Tall in Your Story series.
[00:00:54] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: This week's speaker, we have Chelsea Giara. And I have had the privilege of working with Chelsea for many years as her coach. And I can say without hesitation two things about Chelsea.
[00:00:59] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: One, she is incredibly kind. I'm gonna make it three things, actually.
[00:01:05] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Two, she is wise beyond her years. She has an intelligence that is both emotional intelligence as well as her ability to look at any given situation in her business and come up with a strategy and the path forward is just so, so good. And third, she is resilient. And that resilience, as is always the case, comes from a series of ups and downs in life that kind of forces you into either rising up or succumbing, and she has always been one to rise up.
[00:01:42] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And so as we listen to Chelsea's story, I want you to remember a couple of things about life. One, it is a series of ups and downs, and it is supposed to be that way. And it's important for us to remember that because I think it's easy in those down moments to think, "Oh, I've screwed it up. I've made a mistake.
[00:02:00] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: It's never gonna get any better." And I want Chelsea's experience to, encourage you. And two, I want you to pay attention to her realization at one of her most down moments that we all can learn from. All right. Here's Chelsea.
[00:02:15] Chelsey Gheyara: try to cross me. 2020, enough said. We all went through it. That was such a strange time. I look back now and think, " Wow, we actually lived through a pandemic." A pandemic. It's wild. I think we all can raise our hands that were personally victimized by 2020. It was not only the year of COVID and Microsoft Teams, our new normal, it was a year we all discovered the world was far more uncertain than we thought.
[00:02:58] Chelsey Gheyara: And while the entire world hunkered down in their homes figuring out what was to come, my entire world was shifting in even deeper ways with even more uncertainty. When I think back to 2020, I see two things about my life: the darkness of an ending and the beauty of a beginning.
[00:03:23] Chelsey Gheyara: First, let me give you some context about me.
[00:03:26] Chelsey Gheyara: I was supposed to be a statistic. Born from unwed parents who split when I was four, I lived in seven places from birth to high school graduation. The ever-present demons of my mother's alcoholism. The list goes on. But somewhere deep down, I knew, "Chelsey, you have this one precious life. If you don't decide that you want something better for yourself, then who will?"
[00:04:01] Chelsey Gheyara: I finished college as a nurse and started a life that I could build for myself.
[00:04:06] Chelsey Gheyara: But in 2020, I found myself not just in quarantine in my house. My experience was deeper, darker. I found myself on the floor of my bedroom closet as my only safe haven from a marriage that was about to end before I would let it end me.
[00:04:28] Chelsey Gheyara: It was in that closet, in the fetal position, alone with my thoughts- praying for a way out, plotting how I could escape this, thinking, "I can't let this get worse." This was the darkness of an ending. I had faced hurt before from a very young age from those who promised me they wouldn't hurt me or leave me.
[00:04:53] Chelsey Gheyara: But this was grown-up me facing humiliation and treatment truly not meant for humans. I'd thought grown-up me had found a career and a person to trust with my future. Some advised me to just stay and learn to live with it. But I had to trust in my one precious life and decide for something better. No one was coming to save me.
[00:05:21] Chelsey Gheyara: Thankfully, I did have my core four I leaned on every day. My sister and these friends became my family, and they are in the audience today. Thank you.
[00:05:34] Chelsey Gheyara: So out of that dark closet ending, 2020 also brought me the beauty of a beginning, the power of prayer, these relationships, and remembering you have this one precious life.
[00:05:50] Chelsey Gheyara: If you don't decide that you want something better for yourself, then who will? I was the woman who had already survived the mud and the mire of childhood. I leaned into this quote as I still do today, " You are not a tree. You can move." You can dig yourself out, find a new place, plant new roots, find a new place to grow.
[00:06:17] Chelsey Gheyara: So on June 29th, 2020, I loaded up everything that could fit into my Honda CR-V, including my two golden retrievers, and left the darkness. I'm so grateful to God every day for lifting me up and out. As I turned out of that driveway, glanced in the rearview mirror for the last time, I knew I have this one precious life.
[00:06:45] Chelsey Gheyara: If I don't decide that I want something better for myself, then who will? And I didn't have a whole lot left at that point. Money was gone. My house, gone. Comfort, gone. Dignity, gone. But this was the start of a beautiful new beginning. I had so much more than my dogs and my suitcases with me in that Honda CRV.
[00:07:14] Chelsey Gheyara: I had my gifts and talents. I had my skills. I had my heart. I had my faith. I had my life experiences. I remembered things like my first job washing dishes at 11 that gave me my drive and my work ethic. I had those things that no one can ever take away from me. I was still me. As I drove away, a beautiful new beginning was already taking shape for my one precious life.
[00:07:49] Chelsey Gheyara: Today, I've planted myself where I can grow in a new career, a new marriage, and even a new puppy. And just like I counted on my core four, the people in my new life are counting on me, and someone is counting on you, whether it be your spouse, kids, colleagues, parents, friends, your team. In your hard moments, your dark moments, you can start again.
[00:08:23] Chelsey Gheyara: My prayers in that closet and my choice to leave saved my life. When you look in the mirror, don't let her down. You are stronger than you know. You are made for so much more. Our best days haven't even happened yet. Be here for the sun to rise again. And I stand here tonight on this stage. I'm living the life I prayed for, doing work with elderly I care deeply about, guiding families in their time of uncertainty, building friendships, hosting parties, traveling with my husband.
[00:09:07] Chelsey Gheyara: My list of things I'm living for is long, and I know that I can continue to change and evolve and grow. Things don't have to stay the same. So tonight, I want you to go home and look in the mirror and ask yourself, " What do you want for your one precious life? Who do you wanna be? Who do you wanna serve with your work?
[00:09:33] Chelsey Gheyara: Is it time to leave the darkness? Is it time for a fresh cut, a new job?" You have this one precious life. If you don't decide that you want something better for yourself, then who will?
[00:09:54] ChelseyGheyaraFullTalk: O
[00:09:55] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: kay, Let's unpack Chelsea's story a little bit. Because it's easy to get sucked into the ways of this world that want to tell you that accumulating things, nice houses and wealth and this and that, are a measure of success. And when we attach to things outside of ourselves, we stay in a nervous system state of vigilance trying to hang on to those things or, um, grow and multiply those things.
[00:10:28] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And there is nothing wrong with making money and having a nice house and nice cars and all the things. The Bible is very clear that the Lord wants us to prosper and have great lives. It's when those things become the measure of our success and the way that we see them. And what Chelsea realized was that there are certain things that can never be taken from you.
[00:10:59] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: It was her gifts, her gifts and talents, not her gifts in terms of monetary things or material things, but who she was. It was her faith. It was her resilience and tenacity to get back up off the floor of her closet and try again. That can't be taken away from you. And as we look at our life and career, there are always going to be the ups and the downs.
[00:11:27] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And it's critically important that we stay rooted in a source that is not dependent on our performance. And so when Chelsea said it was her faith that got her through, and she would say this to you if she was here today, is she knows that God is her provider and her protector, and that is her source of safety.
[00:11:49] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And she still goes through some hard times, with life and work, and she's currently dealing with a broken ankle and trying to navigate that and all the travel and all the things. So we're always gonna have hard times, but we have to remember what's within us, not what's around us. And so I hope you found courage and inspiration from Chelsea's talk.
[00:12:12] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And I think of her statement often that you've got to look in that mirror and say to yourself, "I can't let her down," or, "I can't let him down." that... inspiring statement can be the one that causes us to continue to rise up. I said to a client earlier today who's going through some major transitions.
[00:12:35] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: She's been with an organization for more than 20 years, and it's time for her to go and she knows it. And her patterns are really, built on this organization's culture and on, on all the things. 20 years is a long time. And she's excited about leaving, but also, you know, the nervous system patterns wanna pull you back and lead you to believe that that is the source of safety.
[00:13:00] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And so in the conversation today, uh, we were talking about being able to look at our beliefs with kind and loving eyes from a regulated nervous system state, and that will be what's required of her as she navigates these massive changes just like Chelsea did. And I said to her today, "Hey, remember that your best days haven't happened yet, and that your life has already been written in heaven.
[00:13:26] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: We're just discovering it. So go out, be curious, and be excited about what tomorrow and the next day and next year has to offer." And if we can go through life, this one amazing life opportunity that we have, if we can go through it curious and excited about what's next, ah, there's so much that's possible.
[00:13:48] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: All right. I hope you'll go and listen to the rest of the stories that we've been covering here on the podcast, and you can also find them on my website, rebeccafleetwoodheschin.com. Hit the Stand Tall tab and you can see the stories from every single season that we've had, all seven of them. So whenever you need a little dose of inspiration, maybe instead of a scroll through social media, just jump on there and find something that will inspire you.
[00:14:14] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: All right. Love you, mean it.
[00:14:15] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: 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!