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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.
music [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.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:00:10]:
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 Hession, 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. 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? Hey, I'm Rebecca Fleetwood Hession, and I am delighted that you're here. I don't know how you found me, but I'm going to do my damnedest to keep you coming back.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:01:00]:
I'm guessing that you are a business person, a career person, based on the title of the show, business is Human. It's a pretty straightforward title and yet oh so very complex because of that human part. Right? So let's to the chase. This show is not corporate speak. It's not business mumbo jumbo. Let's get to the heart of what makes for a rewarding career and a profitable business. Let's speak human. First, let me break it down.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:01:41]:
The business needs and the human needs are different. They're both critical to success for us as individuals and for the business success. So here's how it goes. The business needs to control, measure and optimize goals, metrics, dashboards, systems, processes. As a 30 plus year leader, business consultant, executive coach, I would tell you always that those are an integral part of the success of a business. However, human needs are very different. We as humans are personal, emotional and social. And meeting our human needs first is how we ensure that we have sustainable growth.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:02:42]:
But over time, what's happened is we started to treat ourselves like a business and we sacrificed so much of our human needs, we started to treat ourselves like machines here to produce. And 2020 gave us all time to sit and think about what we'd done. And that collective reflection time had us all realizing that we were starving out our human needs and we wanted our humanity back. And listen, I am here for it. So I'm going to give you episodes that will help you be wildly successful in life and business. But we have to just face the facts as leaders, especially that the definition of success has shifted and we need to shift with it. Let's come together and help define this shift. Let's harmonize meaning and money to believe that we can actually have both purpose and prosperity.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:03:58]:
This isn't just airy fairy speak. We've created a real problem over the last 75 to 100 years, and I say we because it's the humans that create the businesses and lead the businesses. And so we have to take a look back for just a minute to realize how we got to this place of sacrificing our human needs so that we can learn from it and not recreate it or just shuffle the deck on this thing and not make it any better. So here's some facts. In 1975, Fuller like way back machine, the very first report on burnout was published 1974. Y'all, this stuff is not new. It's just getting a whole lot more visibility with social media and the way that we share information these days. But a german american psychologist, Herbert Friedenberger, was sitting around with his buddies one day, feeling some kind of way about their work.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:05:00]:
And one of them said, I just. I. I don't know. I just feel burned out. And they all agreed that they were just feeling burned out. And so Herbert thought, well, that's interesting. If we're all feeling that way, I'd like to know if others are. And so he set out to do the very first study on burnout and discovered, yeah, lots of people were feeling that way.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:05:24]:
So he defined what the stages of burnout were from the study. And as a good consultant that I am, I went to root cause, because if we can address the first aspects of burnout, then we don't worry about the rest. And I looked at the report, and there it was. The root cause of burnout was to prove yourself, work harder, and take care of the business first, and it will take care of you. And when I looked at that, I just sat and kind of slow blanked for a while, and I thought, I hold on. Wasn't that what I was told? Success is, go out and prove yourself, work harder, take care of the business, and it'll take care of you. And that's when it hit me that our success mindset and habits are the very thing that are making us sick. So here we're going to talk about it.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:06:25]:
We're going to talk about business, but in the context of what we can do and not do as humans, to set ourselves up for a thriving life and business, one that is rooted in growth and impact and all the goodness that we want. But to redefine what success looks and feels like for ourselves, our teams, and therefore our families, nobody's coming to save us. It's time to create something great. And there's no better time than in times of chaos to create something new. If everything already feels like it's falling apart, let's just build something new together. I'm committed to this because I'm an accidental expert on burnouthen. In the midst of a wildly successful career with the Franklin Covey organization, where I had sold more than $35 million and was doing great work and tons of case studies on culture change and leadership effectiveness, I also found myself so sick with pneumonia, I couldn't leave my house for two months. So it turns out like garlic and cake, you can have too much of a good thing, including success.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:07:47]:
And so sort of like Brene Brown said, I had my own little spiritual awakening from burnout sitting in my house for two months. And it put me on this quest to find a way to absolutely feel and be successful financially and otherwise, but not literally kill myself in the process. And so when I stumbled on this first study about burnout from Herbert Friedenberger, I knew that this was what I was going to dedicate the next several years of my work as a coach and a consultant to figure out how to shift this. And I'm happy to report that I've been using some of these concepts that I'm going to talk to you about on the podcast with my clients for some time now. And you know what? They work. They absolutely work. So as an executive coach and a keynote speaker, I've got tools and tricks and stories and strategies, and I'm going to share them all here with you. Some episodes I'll teach you things from my coaching practice.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:08:59]:
Sometimes I'll bring on actual clients to tell you their stories. Sometimes we'll bring on guests that are authors and speakers and leaders and business owners, anyone that has something relevant and impactful to share about business being human and redefining our definition of success. So we're going to talk about leadership and engagement and culture and productivity and execution and all things business. But we're going to do it through the lens of our human needs. So that means we're also going to talk about the nervous system and our beliefs and our mindset and joy and humor and spiritual teachings and everything that relates to our humanity. So I'm going to break it down one more time before I wrap up. The business needs to control, measure, and optimize. But we as humans, our needs are personal, emotional, and social.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:10:03]:
And so the magic happens when you honor the human needs and come into the business healed, whole and ready to make a difference, to make an impact that will absolutely impact the bottom line. So I'd love to hear from you. If there are challenges that you have that you just can't seem to figure out at work and in your life, let's bring them onto the podcast. Let's find people that can help us answer some of your challenges. So message me on social media anywhere. Rebecca Fleetwood Hession. You can drop me a message or email me at Rebecca at we thrive live with your challenge. Your question maybe you can jump on the show, but if you're nothing really interested in being on the mic, that's okay.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:10:56]:
Just share with me what you're dealing with and we'll find somebody that can come in and give us some information that will be helpful. Because chances are, if it's frustrating you, it's probably frustrating a lot of other humans. So one of our mottos around here is better together. Not just a hashtag, but literally, our human nervous system will tell you that. That when we work together, it feels better. I'll be here for about 20 to 40 minutes each episode. So commute time, workout time, whenever it works out for you. And I know there are a lot of business podcasts out there.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:11:37]:
So what makes this one different? Well, I've been in the thick of it for the last three decades in business. I've weathered the highs and lows of business and life from achieving a ultimately, I think, about $40 million in sales at this point in my career, give or take a million or so. And I have numerous case studies about what it takes to shift culture and leadership effectiveness and all of those things. But ive also had my own bout with burnout. As I said, im navigated divorce, co parenting, raising a child with ADHD, and starting a business. And I know what it takes to hit those really lofty goals. I know what it's like to stand on the stage and receive the glass awards. And I also know what it's like to then go home to strife and challenge and what it means to show up at soccer practice with a smile on your face, knowing you just lost the biggest deal of your career.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:12:41]:
And in this stage of my life, I also know what it's like to look back on some of those things and think, you know what? We can do this differently. We can do this better. And so I'm passionately and relentlessly committed to bring you what it takes to live a thriving life and to help you more importantly, to help you define that for yourself. Because each one of us is unique, down to our fingerprints. And so everything that I bring here will be something that you will then take and make your own. So it's these real life experiences that fuel this passion in me. And I want to inspire you both with empathy and vulnerability, but also real tools and support. I've created some great ones.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:13:36]:
I have a methodology and a framework that's working for me, that's working for my clients, and I'm here to share it with you. It's called VRI value, relevance and impact. It's a new way to define success that gives you all of the agency and free will and autonomy that you need, but also the framework that will make sure that your business is aligned to profitable growth. So I'm going to make you think I'm going to make you want to be better and then show you how to move that into action. So hit that subscribe button so you don't miss any of the episodes. And I do 100% believe that if we change the way that we work, we can change the way that we live and we can change the world. But the only way that we can do it is to do it together. Love you, mean it.
music [00:14:35]:
On the ground.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:14:38]:
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 rebeccafletwoodhession.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.
music [00:14:59]:
I'm not coming down.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:15:03]:
Hey y'all, fun fact. If you like the music for the podcast, that is actually my son Cameron Hessian 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.