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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: I’m not coming down. I never locked it on the ground. I’m not coming down. I want to go higher, higher. 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. 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? I don’t know who needs to hear this today, but work was never meant to be everything. I want to look today at how companies, how business has taken on roles that they were never designed to carry or be in our lives.
[00:01:04] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And this topic came up for me when I was asked to do a session at the Indiana SHRM Conference, and as I was looking at the role of HR today and just the state that they’re in, whenever I start a keynote building, I always build them from scratch. I have models that I use that are part of my business, which is why I get asked to do them. But I always start from who is my audience? How do I want them to feel? What do I need them to know and just really try to get in their heads and their hearts. And so I was sitting there that day putting this keynote together and I was like, oh my gosh, the evolution of expectations of business has gotten out of hand and the majority of this evolution funnels into HR. And so I went in and did a little bit of research around what are those evolutions of expectations?
[00:02:08] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And so I ended up with this chart that went from the 1900s where it was largely about pay and labor rights and making sure that people had physically safe conditions, like let’s make sure somebody doesn’t fall into the fire or off the roof. Then to health insurance, pensions, unions drove some changes in the forties to fifties and some call that the stability area, trying to build more stability around our work, but then it just kept going. So then sixties and seventies was all about we need training. We want to increase our competency. And so businesses started offering more training, then it was about mission and making sure we have a culture fit. And then all of a sudden in the eighties to nineties, our personal values were supposed to match to company values. And to me, that’s when things started getting a little wonky.
[00:03:18] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And when I was sitting in the middle of this doing this kind of work, I didn’t see it that way then. I see it that way now because it’s just continuing to evolve to a place that it doesn’t. It’s no longer healthy. But when we think about our personal values, our uniqueness down to our fingerprints on purpose for a purpose now need to be aligned with a company’s values. To me, that’s when we started with this identity creep. That’s when we started to identify not just be paid, not just be protected in terms of safety, but that’s where we started to identify with our work. And y’all a slippery slope because as a child of the most high God, my identity is in Christ. And the minute that I started to identify more with my job and my work and my title, that was the entry point of burnout and fatigue and things for me personally as well as many of the clients that I work with today.
[00:04:30] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: But lemme keep going. So that was eighties and nineties. We started looking at culture fit 2000, 2010. Now we’re in the Whole Person era and I taught The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People for years and Habit seven. That’s the whole person. And I believe that we should live caring for ourselves as a whole person, body, mind, heart, spirit. Yes, please. This is when companies started offering wellness programs and getting more entrenched into the other aspects, not just the paycheck. And I do believe that work has the greatest opportunity to connect to our purpose. I love business. Some people love baseball. And I think that when you know who you are and you have a ton of self-respect and your identity is in your creator, not in your title at your work, that you can show up to work and really use your gifts and talents and who you are in a beautiful way that is good for the job and good for you.
[00:05:43] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: I believe that wholeheartedly what we have now is more of a burnout path, but I do believe in what I call the age of humanity. And we’re going there. I’m committed to be a part of this movement. So then we go into the twenties, and this is where COVID drove a lot of this. Now work is supposed to be in charge of our mental health, our social, our everything. And now we’re moving into work is supposed to take care of our ethics and our nervous system. And where does it stop? How much more are we willing to give? I mean, I’ve got clients that say, I didn’t go to the bathroom today. Yo, if catheters become required to do your job because you don’t have time to go to the bathroom, is that going to be enough? Is that going to be enough for you to go, oh, maybe I’ve given too much.
[00:06:37] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: I’m not going there and I’m not going to let you go there either. So I just wanted to unpack some of this scope creep, I’ll call it on our lives and our identity and how we’ve maybe expected something outside of ourselves to be too much of ourselves. No, no, that doesn’t sound right. But I think you get what I’m saying. There was some other timeline stuff in this scope creep that I think is interesting, just building context for this topic. In post World War II, pensions and healthcare and even housing, were supposed to operate as the family because war had divided up families and cost people their families. And so that was a catalyst for that. Post World War II in the eighties and nineties, the culture boom was like, let’s have fun. I mean, because the eighties and nineties, listen, I was around. It was fun.
[00:07:37] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Fashion was fun, life was fun. And so workplace was supposed to be fun too. And then 9/11, it was about belonging because there was so much fear and uncertainty in the world. And then 2008 financial crisis companies started to say, if you give us your all, if you stick with us, we’ll stick with you. It was this loyalty trade. And of course, COVID was this accelerant around work just moved into our homes and all of a sudden we were asking our work to take care of our mental health and our everything. So we can see how some of this has happened, but the only way to take our lives back is to take our lives back. And I don’t believe that that is going to cost the organization. I believe it’s going to grow the organization because right now we have far too much external validation of identity and not enough intrinsic motivation, not enough identity in self-respect.
[00:08:51] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And if it’s your thing, I’m a child of God. That’s where my identity comes from. So when we’ve given too much of ourselves away, nobody wins. We are not winning. And it’s actually creating so much more fear and angst for our companies that doesn’t allow us to bring our best selves to work. And the science supports this. Our nervous system thrives when safety and connection come from multiple sources, family, faith, community, friends, nature. We’re supposed to have multifaceted, well-rounded life experiences. We don’t want to put all of our safety eggs in one basket called work. And that if work’s not okay, I’m not okay because work is rarely okay for long periods of time. It is just not. And so we have to get our sense of safety and connection from other ways because when work tries to be everything, it creates dependency and overload.
[00:10:01] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And I love you enough to tell you the truth. If I was crafting dark forces of evil in this world, which I’m not, I’m the opposite team, I would want a system that was created on dependency and burnout and overload. Because if I can get you identifying more with your work than anything else, I can control you and I can prevent you from spending quality time with your family. I can prevent you from taking care of yourself. And you basically just self-destruct, which is really easy on the dark forces of the world because we just doing it to ourselves. Again, I love you enough to tell you the truth, and I’m going deep today, but these are the kinds of conversations that we need to be having to take back our identity and our self-respect and our intrinsic motivation. You can stay in the same job we’re in right now.
[00:10:57] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: I’m not saying everybody needs to quit your job and go start your own company. That’s not meant for everybody. But I am saying that we can take back our respect and our identity and not let it be so wrapped up in our work. Because when all of our worth is attached to our work, then burnout and fear are the name of the game. And this isn’t just science. The Bible says it very, very clearly that we want to build our identity in something that is truth, not has the ability to control us and give us the counterfeits of safety. We’re not designed to make corporations or business our source. God is our only source. So what do we do now? Thanks for bringing all that up, Rebecca. This is an inspiring topic. Now what do we do? Well, if you’re a leader, let’s stop trying to be everything to your people.
[00:12:01] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Just stop. And good leaders do this because they care. So it’s not all malicious doom and gloom, but it’s not helping. Yes, there are some that are malicious, that are trying to do it for control, but there are really good leaders, people that I know and love that are trying to provide more and more for their people because they care. But let’s be really cautiously aware of what’s healthy and what’s not. Be human, yes, but help them build their own lives outside of work. And I’m seeing more and more of this that people are less excited about the after hours events and the things that business used to provide for social opportunities. People are saying, you know what? I want to work and I want to go home. I want to be with my family. I want to be with my friends. I want to be with my dog.
[00:12:55] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And that’s okay. That doesn’t mean you’re failing as a culture. It means you are in a safer relationship with your workforce. If you’re an employee, just don’t outsource your identity to your company. Stand tall in your own story. Build from the inside out. Know who you are. Self-respect. We just did an episode about that previously. Business should contribute to your life, not be your life. So here’s some reflection questions to see where you are and what you may want to choose to think about. Do differently. Where have I expected my company to give me what really belongs to God? Family or community? Where have I expected too much from business and community? Second reflection question is, as a leader, have I promised things to my team that aren’t mine to carry? And number three, how can I diversify my sources of safety, belonging and meaning outside of work?
[00:14:05] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Maybe create a rhythm of connection outside of work this week. Just completely disconnect from work and join a pickleball team or do something that’s not related to your work or the people at work. And if you are a leader, just take a look at the expectations that you have of your company and what you call culture. I’ve had leaders be really upset that people didn’t come to the work family picnic. If it’s outside of work hours, maybe we shouldn’t expect them to give more than that. Their work hours. Maybe we’ve gotten it a little twisted and we’re taking it a little too personally. And giving people their lives back is more loving and kind. And let’s shift the language from we’re a family here. Nope, nope. No, you’re not two, we’re a great team. Let’s just be really clear on who’s who. So work was never meant to be everything.
[00:15:11] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Business can be deeply human without becoming your sole source of life. I’ve never intended it to be that way. So say, if you want to talk about this, if you want to send me some of your questions, that’ll help me maybe build another episode and maybe you can jump on as a guest and we’ll talk about it here together. But this is a topic that I’m really emotionally attached to because I think it matters a lot. All right, love you. M coming down. I never locked on the ground. I’m down. 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. All right, make it a great day. Love you mean it.