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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 Business Is Human. I’m your host, Rebecca Fleetwood Hession, and we’re here to bring you episodes that blend meaningful work with profitable success—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.
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. Alright, let’s get into it, shall we?
Listen, if I was a good singer right now, I would bust out into the song, It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, but I’m not a singer—but it is.
[00:00:56] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: We’re coming up on the most wonderful time of the year. And you know what? I’m not really talking about the holidays. I mean, I love me some holidays, but I’m not the one that starts decorating for Christmas after Halloween. I’m an after-Thanksgiving kind of person. I’m a “give the gratitude season its due” kind of person—which surely you can believe about me.
And if you listen around here very often, you know gratitude is a big deal for me. So what I’m talking about when I say the most wonderful time of the year is what happens for humans, especially humans in business, during the holiday season. It is reflection season, and it’s coming up. It’ll start stirring around everybody’s hearts and minds around Thanksgiving, when we start talking about gratitude.
I mean, I think now we talk more about table settings and turkey, but that’s a whole different problem I’m not going to address today.
[00:02:01] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: So every year around the holidays, people start evaluating their lives. And so I’m coming to you today to help you prepare for that—as a leader and as somebody who’s going to go through this probably in your own life—so we can get ahead of it a little bit and make sure that as people go into reflection season, you’ve given them the opportunity to do that time well.
And really set yourself up, especially if you’re a business leader or a business owner, to make sure the reflection is in your favor as a company, if you will. Neuroscience calls this a natural cycle of reflection. It’s supposed to happen. Our brains slow down and start to shift from all the doing of work into meaning-making.
I need my life to mean something. And when we’re just go, go, go—do, do, do—sometimes we lose sight of the meaning. That’s a problem in and of itself that I help my clients with through some practices.
So I want people to have meaning each week in their work, which is why I have a practice for it called the Weekly VRI Practice, where you literally sit down each week and look at your value, relevance (which is the meaning), and the impact. Because meaning-making shouldn’t be yearly. That’s part of the problem.
[00:03:12] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: So what happens when we move out of that go-go-do-do mode—we start thinking about the meaning of our lives and our work. And spiritually, the Bible talks about this. It’s a rhythm of rest and renewal. Jesus went off to the mountains to pray. That’s like—this is a thing.
So the nervous system’s pace slows down in the winter, and people begin reflecting. It’s snuggle season. It’s “let’s hunker down, let’s go inside.” We’re not out doing as much, especially here in the Midwest, where weather brings us inside.
But even if you live in a warmer climate, there’s the natural seasonal feeling of “this is reflection time.” And so people begin reflecting on: Am I fulfilled, or am I just functioning?
And that’s where it starts. The Bible says—Ecclesiastes, I think—there’s a time for everything, a season for everything. And that’s part of this deal. Reflection is not optional. We’re supposed to do it. It’s part of our human design.
[00:04:11] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: So in business, this means that people are saying, “Do I still want to work here? Do I still belong here? Does this work matter? Am I seen and valued?”
And so if you are leading a team or a company, this is the time you want to be prepared that this is going to be happening for your people pretty darn soon. And so ask yourself these questions now: When was the last time you paused long enough to ask these questions?
Which I also believe we shouldn’t do this kind of deep reflection yearly. And so I have my clients do a Monthly Clarity Day. You want me to be your coach? You’ll do it each month—and it’s a beautiful thing. So we don’t get to the end of the year and maybe find ourselves in a bit of a crisis about meaning.
I don’t want that to happen to you or your teams. So why do you need to prepare for this now? Because by January—which is in 15 minutes—reflection turns into decisions.
[00:05:22] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: The seeds of how people are going to feel about next year are getting planted now, in November and December.
And so from a neuroscience perspective, reflection precedes change. When people get clarity from their reflection time, then they’re going to act. And they may be acting in a way that they say, “I’m going to look for a new job.”
Or, if there aren’t jobs aplenty in your industry or whatever’s happening at the time, they may decide they’re not going to give as much as they used to give—and that’s even worse.
Because they may decide they’re going to check out a little bit, because they’ve given you too much and they don’t know if it matters or not. They may decide—we used to call it “quiet quitting”—they may decide to work for their paycheck and that’s it.
I do not ever want people to overwork. I think you should always make sure that you have good, healthy boundaries and perspective in your life. But I want people to know why they matter—because you work in a different way when you know why you matter.
[00:07:13] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: So it’s not about working more hours. It’s about the way that you engage your brain in the work.
And spiritually, when people start getting restless, sometimes it’s God stirring something new in them—that they do need a shift. We’re not holding people hostage as leaders. God has their plan, not you as a leader.
And so they may need to make some shifts. And if that’s the call on their heart, then you want to be able to receive that and support them. Hopefully, there’s a shift for them in your company.
But if not, you always want to keep that relationship healed, healthy, and whole. And check your ego at the door about it. They’re not leaving you. It’s not a breakup. It’s not because you are bad.
It’s because God is stirring something new in them that they need to answer. We need to be mindful that this stuff happens in this time of year.
[00:08:12] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: So if you’re leading a team or a business, this time of the year isn’t the time to double down and be a tyrant. I know for many of you it might be year-end, and the pressure could be insane.
But this is the time to listen deeply. Use that time of listening and connection to drive better year-end results. Don’t just send emails saying, “We gotta get it done.” This is the time to really think about how you’re connecting with your team.
So schedule end-of-the-year conversations with your team one-on-one. Ask about the highlights of their year. Ask about their challenges. Ask about the hopes that they have for next year and what kind of things they’re going into the holidays reflecting about.
Make sure this is a conversation, not a decision that they make in a vacuum because they’re at home eating chocolate chip cookies realizing that they might want to make a change.
[00:09:13] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And if you haven’t told them that they matter, they’re going into it thinking, “I don’t know if anybody even cares about me at that company.” Don’t let that happen.
Now you gotta actually care. If you don’t, maybe it’s time for you to make a change. Call me—I’ll help you with that.
Express genuine appreciation—not a mass email that says, “Thanks for all you do. The people here are our most important asset.” Okay, you can send that because you’re going to feel bad if you don’t, and people—whether you send it or not—somebody will complain about it.
Okay, send the typical mass email. But don’t let that be the only connection point. Still have the one-on-one conversations. If you run a company, have your leaders have those one-on-ones.
And you’re thinking, “Oh my gosh, we have so much to do for year-end.” Okay, but I’m just telling you—I’m telling you what’s going to happen once everybody goes off for the holiday.
So you can prepare for that or not—but I’m just here to try to help you.
[00:10:15] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: So genuine appreciation is appreciating who they are as a human—their gifts, their talents, how they show up—not just their results.
So it sounds something like this: “Hey, you know what? I so appreciate the way that you show up here for your colleagues and your clients. You’re always kind, and you’re such a great listener. I know it just makes everybody feel good and safe to be around you. And I know that’s why your results are always great.”
So you’re saying, “Yeah, thank you for your results,” but you’re also saying, “Here’s who you are and how you get those results.”
Because if we only appreciate and affirm the results, people don’t know who they are, and they don’t know if they matter. They think they’re a machine there to produce—not a beautiful human who brings value, relevance, and impact that matters.
[00:11:21] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: That should be your go-to—always—when you’re affirming and appreciating people. And again, if I was your coach, I would make sure that happens.
Okay—check your team’s nervous system state. Is it anxious? Is it striving? Or is it calm and connected? Because that’s something that you may want to look at.
The way things are structured—the meeting cadence, is it constant back-to-back and nobody gets to breathe? There are things that you can do from a company structure perspective that impact people’s nervous systems holistically.
It matters. Actually, if you go back a few episodes—a few months—I did an episode about meeting structure and the scaffolding that we build to make sure people feel safe for growth.
And that would be helpful for the condition of your flocks, as they say in the Bible. Make sure you know how the herd’s doing.
[00:12:21] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Leadership is stewardship. You don’t own people—you nurture them for the season that they’re there with you.
So if anywhere in your head you said, “How do we keep our people?” and you’re thinking about it from a turnover perspective—remember, you don’t own people.
Make sure that you’re creating the conditions where they want to stay and work for you. Reconnect, as I said, to their value, relevance, and impact.
VRI is the framework that I designed and use in my coaching and my work. And if you want help with me working with your teams, we can install this Business Is Human idea into your entire company.
So what unique value do they bring? And how does it fit into the future of where you’re going? Because people want that lighthouse—they want that vision.
Where’s this thing going? Is it just more of the same? Or is there something that we’re going to accomplish as a company that I can get excited about?
[00:13:15] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: So as they leave the year, maybe tease out some of those things even before the big company rally in the new year—because you want to send them out feeling blessed, not burned out.
This is also a good time for you as a leader to pray about your discernment for the team and the cool courage to be a great leader, so that you can have a peaceful transition into a new year.
So own your own reflection season before you lead reflection in others. Lead it in yourself.
And so maybe Thanksgiving break is the time for you to start your reflection season as a leader. This is the time to ask yourself: How am I leading? How am I leading well? Where might I need to do some things differently—so that you can spend the month of December adjusting and implementing some of those thoughts and changes from your own reflection.
So when you bless people out for the year, they’ve already seen some shifts in you.
[00:14:17] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Ask yourself: Where am I truly thriving? Where am I maybe striving and sending people’s nervous systems into a disrupted state from my own leadership?
Maybe you’ve gotten so focused on output and results that you’ve lost your own purpose—you’ve lost your own sense of why.
What’s God stirring in you for the next season? Is there something in your calling that you’re ready to shift or change?
Remember that our brains crave alignment—congruence between what we say, how we feel, and what we do. And when we get in misalignment—when there’s something that I really want to do but I’m not doing it—that creates dissonance.
It’s like a car that’s out of balance. When the wheels are out of balance, eventually things start to break. We’re the same way.
[00:15:27] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Next steps: schedule some time in December for both stillness for yourself—Thanksgiving and December stillness—and then strategy sessions before December with your team one-on-one.
Maybe this is a time to coordinate a journaling activity for this: What am I grateful for this year? What feels complete? And what needs to grow next year?
Just simple reflection questions. And make sure that you are planning out how you want to think about and affirm your team before year’s end.
Sit down with your journal and write some things down so that you’re prepared when you sit down face-to-face.
[00:16:33] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Alright—my intent always is to serve and be helpful. And so I would love to hear from you on how this went, how it’s going, what questions you have, and how I can be more helpful to you.
This season isn’t about slowing down out of weakness or exhaustion—though for some it might be. I want you to think about how to help them align to their strengths, and for you to align to your strength.
Because when you make room for reflection in a beautiful way, and you have a shared conversation about it—as leaders and employees—you make room for maybe a revelation about something. Something beautiful. Something great for you and them and the business.
Let’s use this time of reflection really intentionally.
If you haven’t yet, go get your ticket for Standing Tall in Your Story—it’s March 12th. Go to my website, rebeccafleetwoodhession.com.
Thanks for being here. You can follow us on Instagram at Business Is Human or on TikTok at 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.