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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: Next up in our Stand Tall in Your Story speaker series is Emily Wolfington. And what is so interesting about Emily's story is... Well, there's many things that we'll get into. But before you listen to the story, I wanna set it up by looking at the difference between how we typically go out and look for someone to inspire us, model our life after.
[00:01:10] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: We read books about people, we look for mentors. The answer is somewhere out there. And through the experience of Rise and Thrive that happens before these women get on the stage for Stand Tall in Your Story is a lot of self-reflection. I guide them to look at the patterns and the beliefs and the things that have existed in their lives for always.
[00:01:37] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: We go back to their childhood self. And it was in this self-reflection of studying her own story that Emily came to some new revelation. Let's get into it.
[00:01:49] Emily Wolfington: How many of you know the song Margaritaville from Jimmy Buffett? Well, good for you guys. That was the only Jimmy Buffett song that I knew, and that's why I volunteered to be the designated driver for a group of friends that wanted to go. My plan was get there, hang out for a minute, take off. But then a drunk parrot head stumbled up to us and said, "Does anyone need a free ticket?"
[00:02:14] Emily Wolfington: My girlfriend said to me, "This is your sign to go." So I forfeited my role as DD and headed to the beer tent to catch up with my pregame friends. I'm walking back looking for my friends in the lawn and I can't find them. And wouldn't you know I'm not paying attention to anything that is right in front of me.
[00:02:37] Emily Wolfington: I run smack dab into someone. But not just any someone, a friend from college, a friend that my parents wanted me to date years earlier. Well, we laughed about running into each other and he asked for my number. Being fresh off of a breakup, I panicked and ran off. Thankfully though, he didn't give up. He got my number through mutual friends and eventually I went on a date with him.
[00:03:10] Emily Wolfington: It was another concert, Tom Petty, July 10, oh yeah, July 10, 2010. And I know that date not only because I love me some Tom Petty, but because that was also the day my grandparents asked me to stand up with them as they renewed their vows at church. It was so special being a part of their day. And as we were leaving the church, my grandma Catello was the emcee.
[00:03:37] Emily Wolfington: She asked what I was up to later and I told her I had a date. She said something really corny like, "Oh, he's gonna be so special." And I laughed, but she and my parents were right. That was my last first date Tonight, I'm gonna share with you a series of fortune events, things that have happened in my life that just seemed to work out.
[00:04:02] Emily Wolfington: So let's fast-forward seven years. Josh and I are finally expecting. We're living in a duplex and trying to buy our first home. Mm, that's the wrong word. Uh, failing to buy our first home. So we are checking out all the houses, doing all the things you're supposed to do, but it kept falling through over and over again.
[00:04:28] Emily Wolfington: I'm devastated. My husband is frustrated. And so the weekend of our anniversary, we set, our plan was just no more house stuff. We're just gonna spend time together. But you know, our realtor, he had different plans. He texts and he said, "I found a house. I think you should come see." I had never heard of this neighborhood, and I did not want to spend my anniversary with our realtor, but something told us we needed to go.
[00:04:59] Emily Wolfington: We set one foot inside of that house, and we knew it was home. So we scrambled to put an offer in, and then we learned we weren't their first offer. And then we learned we weren't their highest offer. But we told them it was destiny seeing this house on our anniversary, and we promised to put that beautiful nursery to good use.
[00:05:24] Emily Wolfington: Thankfully, they thought it was our destiny too and accepted our offer. And then another unexpected thing, not going according to plan, Josh gets an email from a guy we'd contacted six years prior about purchasing his lot if he ever decided about, ever decided to sell so we could build our dream home.
[00:05:47] Emily Wolfington: Imagine our shock. We're still unpacking boxes. We still own a duplex, and we do not qualify for traditional financing. So I decided to pray about it Guess what, guys? The seller decided to finance us. Pretty crazy how this all can work out. So I'm gonna switch gears here, another crowd participation. Who here has worked a job that eats your soul?
[00:06:19] Emily Wolfington: I'm sorry that we're all in this club together, uh, but that was me. The money was good. I was supposed to be saving for my dream house, but I couldn't do it. It was eating my soul. So I came across the perfect job online. And even though I was pregnant and the timing was terrible, I decided to go for it.
[00:06:47] Emily Wolfington: Loved everything about it, the people, what I learned about the job. It was all so great. And then I didn't get it. I took it as a sign to stay where I was, and I'd figure it out on maternity leave. So now it's two days before I am to return back to work, and I am crushed under the weight of returning to that dreaded job.
[00:07:16] Emily Wolfington: I went to bed that night crying, "God, what am I supposed to do? I can't go back." The very next morning, I get a call from the CEO of that perfect job that I didn't get months prior. He said he'd made a mistake and he'd hoped I'd take the job I called him back, negotiated a higher salary, and then I took the job.
[00:07:53] Emily Wolfington: You know what? I had to really think about which stories, which fortunate events am I gonna share with you all tonight? And then I was reminded, Rebecca said seven minutes. So I'm gonna keep this brief, but that job led me to incredible people. And when the company was acquired, I sought the advice from my mentor.
[00:08:18] Emily Wolfington: I needed that outside perspective, and I told her I needed to find something else.
[00:08:26] Emily Wolfington: Guess what she did, guys? She offered me her job. Can you believe that? A person I respect and admire, she was going to trust me to switch industries, switch companies, do all the things, and take her job. I can't believe it still, and I'm gonna celebrate six years with this organization, and I see them all right back there.
[00:08:55] Emily Wolfington: Hey, Alamance. I'm thrilled that they, Susan, my mentor, and so many people that I love and who have supported me through fortunate and unfortunate events are here tonight This highlight reel of mine could go on and on. And now I know why. You see, I've always believed in God, but I used Him. I used Him as a backup plan and a last resort.
[00:09:26] Emily Wolfington: Through this experience, I'm learning to rely on Him for those big, scary milestones, but also for everyday guidance and decisions. I'm realizing the more I surrender to His plan, the more beautiful life becomes. And life isn't easy. It's hard. But I know with full confidence, God causes all these things, the fortunate and the unfortunate, to work together as a plan for good, even when I don't see it that way at first.
[00:10:04] Emily Wolfington: So the next time God, when He's dressed as a drunk parrot head, offers you a ticket, say yes, and watch how God unfolds a series of fortunate events that will change the path of your life. Thank you.
[00:10:26] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Isn't it comforting to know that God still shows up at a Jimmy Buffett concert? Religion has done us a disservice thinking that we're all supposed to be polished up and perfect and doing everything right in order to be blessed, and that's just, that's just not true. So I love Emily's story to remind us of that.
[00:10:47] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: There was a couple other things I wanted to bring up as it, can help you understand how to use your own story to reflect and to motivate you. So Emily had a lot of time in stillness and reflection. That's one of the assignments of, of doing this work before they get on stage. So they implement a daily stillness practice, and it was in that process that her cells were able to settle.
[00:11:18] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Because when I s- first met Emily and people had talked about her to me, everyone said two things. "You're gonna love her." Like, she has a fan club in the Indianapolis area. And the second thing they would talk about is how absolutely busy, go-getter, always got everything going on, always responsible, involved in everything she is.
[00:11:44] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And therefore, the people who were really close to her were concerned and wanted her to be in this program because they didn't want her to burn out. This daily stillness practice was really the first time that she'd spent any meaningful time in reflection.
[00:12:01] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And it was because her nervous system finally got settled, and you've heard me tell the story a lot of times if you're a regular here. If you're new, I'll tell it for you today. It's like a snow globe. And when we're busy, busy, busy, busy all the time, it's like the snow globe is all shook up. And it's glittery good stuff that we're doing, but it's activating.
[00:12:25] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And when we are constantly activated, we don't have access to the kind of long-term discernment and wisdom and the higher level of things that God wants to plant in our hearts and our minds. And in order for a snow globe to settle, we have to set it down, and it has to be still for a minute. And then when it's still for a, long enough time, not, incredibly long, minutes, seconds for us as in our nervous system, then what is inside the snow globe can see out, and what is outside can see in.
[00:13:01] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Then we can get connection And what's happening most of the time for high achievers, busy people like Emily, is you've got so much going on, you feel like if I don't control everything and keep moving, it's all gonna fall apart, when that's actually counterintuitive. That'sreally the counterfeit.
[00:13:18] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: That's the devil trying to keep you exhausted by being busy. And God's way is that we need to rest and rejuvenate in order to access the nervous system that he designed, our higher-level thinking with empathy and discernment and long term. And so it through that daily stillness practice and being accountable to us and our group and me as her coach that she was able then to process some of the things that she was reflecting on And when we can reflect on our own story with kind and loving eyes, there's a lot to be learned there.
[00:13:58] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: There's a great book called The Gap and The Gain, and its premise is we're so busy looking out in front of us trying to reach some destination, it's like racing and chasing the horizon. And we know how that works. this book says, "Every once in a while, you need to look back at how far you've come and gain your encouragement and your motivation from that.
[00:14:25] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Look at how much I've done and survived and created. I'll be okay for this next chapter of my story too." And so it was that kind of process that Emily was able to engage in that allowed her to see how God had orchestrated some really cool things in her life. And in fact, it wasn't so much that she was in control of everything like she thought she was.
[00:14:54] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And if God had done such a good job at all of these key aspects of her life, why was she treating him like a 911 emergency call instead of, you know, the CEO of her life, the partner in her life, being, you know, as the Bible says, yoked to do life together. And she also hadn't considered that she could be praying about things in her business.
[00:15:18] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: it seems kinda duh when, when you're talk- when we're talking about it now. but these were big revelations that she got over this seven-month period that we were working together in coaching. it did a couple of things for her. It allowed her to settle- and be more confident, not feel like she was always chasing the next thing or trying to prove herself and figure it out.
[00:15:42] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And it allowed her to access her higher level of thinking. And so she made some really big decisions in terms of how she was managing her day and her schedule, as a result of this, which are netting great results for her and her team and her organization. So I hope you'll take those lessons from Emily and apply those to your own story.
[00:16:11] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: It's something that I sit down and do occasionally is just sit down and list out the look how far I've come list when I need a little boost and encouragement to realize that everything's gonna be okay. That I've had the skills and the divine guidance to get through a lot of things so far, and I'm pretty sure he's not gonna give up on me now.
[00:16:31] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: I hope this is helpful, and I hope it, encourages you to stick around if you're a new listener. And we have one more story coming that will complete our Stand Tall in Your Story series. So make sure you hit subscribe and come back for All right. Love you, mean
[00:16:48] 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!