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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.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [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, higher.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:00:09]:
Than that welcome back to the Business is Human podcast.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:00:12]:
I'm your host, Rebecca Fleetwood Hession, and.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:00:14]:
We'Re here to bring you episodes that.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:00:16]:
Blend 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.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:00:28]:
As always, my friendly request.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:00:30]:
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? Happy New Year. So we are in our three week series of reflection questions for the New Year. So last week I asked asked you questions about yourself, your personal and just life in general. This week we're going to concentrate on relationships and next week we're going to talk more about career. And so follows the reflection. Plus connection provides your direction kind of vibe that I like to use a lot and helps us to pace this out a bit and give yourself several weeks to really think about this year and being able to live it more intentionally.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:01:30]:
And I reminded us last week that winter is actually a time of hibernation and reflection. And it's okay if you're not feeling all go getterish before the New year. That's more of a corporate view of life than it is our natural rhythm of the seasons. So I much prefer the natural rhythm of the seasons. And so I spend most of January in a time of great reflection, mostly in my comfy clothes with a journal and a fire in the fireplace and probably a puppy on my lap. I'm not up just knocking it out of the park first thing in the beginning of the year. And I learned that fairly recently. So if that's not been your practice, I get it.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:02:19]:
It didn't used to be mine either. But I also used to feel some guilt. That's what I wanted to be doing because that's what my body was craving. But I was forcing myself into that go getter message of New Year new you. And I just now feel much more aligned to my natural rhythms in the way that I handle my new year. But I do always believe that reflection time is paramount for living the life that you want to live and not getting unintentionally in that mode of proving yourself and pleasing others and making sure that we're not on the path to burnout. Which is where that leads. Instead, we are creating the conditions to thrive for ourself.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:03:07]:
And so that brings me to the reflection questions for our relationships. And I want to give you some context, as I typically like to do, about relationships, because I am finding this really fascinating. Over the last few years, there's been a real emphasis on authenticity and uniqueness, and I've been participating in that as well. I think we're well overdue for that message, especially in the business community. And it really got accelerated post 2020, when everybody was in a state of basically trauma response from the forced reflection time that we had when the world shut down and we were isolated. And in that time of reflection, many people around the world add some of those feelings of, gosh, I'm not necessarily living the life that I hoped I would, or there's got to be more than this. And so we, since 2020, have had a big shift in kind of the great reimagining of life and work. And so authenticity, of course, is going to be a part of that conversation, because we know that the definition of burnout is to prove yourself, always be working harder, and believe that if you take care of the business, it will take care of you.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:04:34]:
And all of that is very much an outside in view of life and work. There's something out there that I have to please. There's. I gotta work harder to please someone out there in order for me to feel good in here. Touching my, my heart. And what we do around here is inside out. Who am I? How am I gonna create the conditions to thrive so that I can show up in my life, my work, my job, my career in a way that I am healed, whole, ready to serve. So as a part of that authenticity message, there's been a lot of self reflection.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:05:13]:
There's been a lot of, well, who am I? What do I want? I say this all the time. We are all unique, down to our fingerprints. Made on purpose, for a purpose. We're supposed to be different. I spent a lot of time researching and understanding the world of attention deficit disorder because my son and my now ex husband both have ADHD minds. And so I've created training modules for parents of kids with adhd. I've really studied the brain from that perspective for a lot of years. And it was then that I landed on understanding how much our uniqueness really matters.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:05:51]:
Because when you, when you've got a kid that doesn't fit into the social norms and constructs of the way that school is created, you start to realize that nobody really does fit into the way that school is created. And you start to really see people through the lens of their uniqueness. And as we as a business community and as a society look at authenticity as a really high value, we're honoring our own uniqueness. Now where that gets really fascinating is when we come together. The idea is that we're all unique, like pieces of a puzzle. And that when we come together, there are three characteristics of a puzzle. Once it's put together, it's far more beautiful and it's far stronger. And every piece matters.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:06:41]:
And so we need those, you know, as I say, jaggedy ass edges. And our unique piece of the puzzle should look differently so that we can connect with others. But you know what's really fascinating? When we get in a room with others, we just want everybody else to see our uniqueness. And we spend a lot of time judging the uniqueness of others as our default connection thing, which isn't connection at all. It's deflecting the differences in others. And I'll tell you how this got to be such a strong thing in my mind over the last, I don't know, year, probably do this exercise for clients a lot where I will have people at groups of four to six at a table. And I'll say, okay, get a piece of paper and a writing utensil. And then I'll give them a word that relates to their industry, whether it's healthcare or marketing or just something about their industry.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:07:45]:
And so the first assignment is word association. Write down as many words as you can think of when you hear the word healthcare. And I give them one minute and I set the timer and I say, write as many as you can on your own.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:07:58]:
Go.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:07:58]:
And they typically come up with anywhere between 6 and 12 words. And then at their tables, I say, okay, I want you to go around the room and I want you to see how many of words you match. So if all four to six of you at a table have the same word, you get one point. Then I'll say, okay, how many do you think you're gonna get? So they give a forecast and it's usually like three or four. And then I have them compare and inevitably they have very few matches because we're all unique down our fingerprints and we all see everything differently. And they're so surprised. But what's even more interesting for me is to watch them identify that they don't have very many matches. What shows up almost immediately, and they're joking and laughing and having a good time, but they're Also really judgy.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:08:57]:
So they'll be laughing. They'll be like, what do you mean you don't have something? Whatever they had on their list that they can't believe that nobody else had? And they're laughing and joking, but they're really shocked. And then I'll say, okay, so maybe that word was, you know, not simple enough. And then I'll give them a really simple word. Same exercise with, like, the word tree or dog or something that everybody knows and relates to every single day of their lives, regardless of their job. And I'll say, okay, write down as many words as you can. You have one minute. And usually they have more words to use to see if they sync up.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:09:36]:
Usually there's between 10 and 20 words that each person asks. And I say, okay, how many think you're gonna match now? And they'll go, oh, we're definitely gonna match at least 4 to 6 on this one. Okay. And then I have them compare their list, and very rarely is there a match. So when I use the word dog, you'll have some people that do bull, leash, collar. Some people do spaniel, shepherd, boxer. Some will do poop and snoop. I mean, everybody has a different list.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:10:06]:
And again, what's really fascinating is the way that people assess how different they really are. And I feel really bad for the people that are not dog people when I use the word dog. You know, there are cat people out in the world, too, and people just look at them. What do you mean you don't like dogs? And then I watched the person who didn't have the word that everybody else had at the table just shrink back and feel bad for being their unique self, because we all want to be our unique self until we're in a group, and then we want us all to be the same, y'all. It doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way. And so in order to really enjoy the benefit of being unique down to our fingerprints on purpose, for a purpose, we need a loving appreciation for our differences. And I'm going to constantly reference the episode I recorded last year with Eliza Kingsford that all of our thoughts come from love or fear.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:11:20]:
And when we come together with others with love, that's a love of their differences, not we're going to love them when they see the world like we do. But unfortunately, what shows up in that exercise a lot of times is a fear of differences in others. And so the more that we can go into this new year with curiosity about the differences in others versus this need for everybody to be similar to us in order for us to feel safe. We're going to have much richer conversations and we're going to have deeper relationships. And I encourage you to spend this year watching and reflecting on how you respond to the differences in others. I mean, my goodness, this past election year was enough to send us all into a tizzy about that, huh? We're all supposed to have different perspectives. And as I give you these reflection questions around connection this week, I wanted to set up that context that we're. If we want to be honored for our uniqueness and our authenticity and we have to honor others, well, we have to.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:12:47]:
I'm, I'm begging you to and begging you to see the world through the lens of not wrong, just different, not better, just different. And my favorite is that normal is just a setting on the dryer. It's not meant to be a label for people. So there's some context for you. As we go into these reflection questions about relationships and connections, one of the places that shows up a lot is the differences in men and women. And I think it's fascinating, especially in a work scenario, that it's very clear that men and women are different, right? And yet when we get into a business scenario, all of a sudden we want men to be more like women and women to be like men because it makes people feel more comfortable. If we can again learn to appreciate the differences and use them in the way they are intended, things just get better and easier. So I asked ChatGPT, I said, based on science, DNA and universal truths, what are the top three strengths and differences in men and women? And the first one was physical strength and endurance.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:14:09]:
That doesn't mean that women aren't strong. Like, just let go of some of that. Like, it's true that men on average tend to have greater muscle mass and physical strength due to higher levels of testosterone. Women have greater endurance and better recovery times after physical exertion. They also tend to have a higher percentage of body fat, which can be advantageous for energy storage and endurance activities. These were just, we're, we're built this way. We're supposed to be this way. Men generally excel in activities requiring short bursts of high intensity strength.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:14:47]:
And women may perform better in activities requiring sustained endurance and have better muscle recovery rates. The amount of sleep that men and women need are different. Women need more sleep than men. And so we don't have to compete and compare that we're supposed to be up at 4:30am because our husband is or our. That's what our brother does, and vice versa. Just honor who we are. Another category that ChatGPT gave me was cognitive and emotional processing. The strengths are that men tend to have advantages in spatial reasoning and tasks that involve complex navigation.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:15:26]:
They are also more likely to excel in tasks requiring focused attention and single tasking. Women generally have stronger verbal and language skills. They are often more adept at multitasking and have better emotional intelligence, which includes empathy and social cognition. The difference is that men are often better at visualizing objects in space and orienting themselves in an environment. Women typically have superior abilities in understanding and processing emotions and in tasks requiring verbal communication. And so there are so many great opportunities in a business setting to honor the differences in men and women in the way that we're crafting, strategy and execution. It's not uncommon for a man to say, okay, this is where we're going to go. And it's a very powerful stance on something.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:16:18]:
This is what we got. This is, this is the hill we're going to take. And then women in the room are the ones that are saying, well, hold on, let's make sure that everybody is on board with this. We've got all the resources that we need. We're communicating it well. We've taken into consideration the emotions about this goal. It's a perfect opportunity for those two perspectives about something to come together and come up with an even better plan moving forward. But too often we don't acknowledge the differences are very real and use them to combat and frustrate one another versus come together.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:16:58]:
The third area that ChatGPT came up with was stress response and resilience strengths. Men tend to exhibit a fight or flight response to stress, which can be beneficial in situations requiring immediate action or confrontation. Women often display a tend and befriend response to stress which involves seeking social support and nurturing relationships. This can lead to better long term stress management and resilience. The difference is men's stress responses are more geared towards immediate physical action and women's stress responses are more inclined towards social bonding and collaborative problem solving. You may have noticed when things are in a conflict situation, oftentimes men want to just make a decision and move on and women are saying, hang on, we need to talk about this. And so there's no right or wrong here. This is understanding differences so that we can use those differences to grow our ability businesses in a really beautiful way.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:17:59]:
So it says that the universal truths are that both men and women possess unique strengths that complement each other, which is vital for the survival and thriving of societies. The expression of strengths and differences is influenced by both biology and environment. Making cultural context important in understanding these traits and emphasizing and leveraging the strengths of both genders can lead to more balanced and effective teams and communities. Can I get an Amen and an Amen? So again, differences supposed to be different, but how can we use those differences to come together?
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:18:40]:
I'm not coming down. I never locked it on the ground.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:18:44]:
You know, I love a good connection.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:18:46]:
And I recently met a founder.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:18:47]:
Her name is Paige McFeely and her.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:18:49]:
Company is called Base.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:18:52]:
And what I love about her work is, well, you know, Business is Human and the humans running your business needs support. But the support that everyone needs is going to look very different because we're.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:19:05]:
All unique down to our fingerprint.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:19:06]:
So some people need help with an overloaded calendar or an overflowing inbox, invoicing expenses, personal appointments, social media, it could be anything. And finding the right virtual executive assistant.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:19:20]:
Can help with all of that. And that's what Base does.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:19:24]:
They're the expert in finding you not just an ea, but the right EA to ensure that the partnership is a success. They have been trusted for over 10 years, they have a proven track record and a highly skilled pool of US based EAs experienced in a range of areas. So getting started with an EA might feel overwhelming. So Base offers these resets for just $750. An executive assistant will come and clean up your well, they won't come there, it's virtual. They'll clean up your email, your calendar and no commitments, just results. And as a special offer, they're giving you buy one, get one free resets. So get one for yourself and then give one to a friend, a co worker, your boss, your spouse.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:20:10]:
And then if you decide to continue working with Base to actually have a partnership with an executive assistant, they'll give you exclusive bonuses, making it even more rewarding for you and your friend. Mention my name, Rebecca Fleetwood Hession or Business is Human podcast to get your bogo and all the special treatment that comes with it. All right, let me know how it goes.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:20:33]:
All right, onto the reflection. Questions for Relationships Here we are in between the questions that will be up to you to pause the episode and either journal or just spend some time thinking about these questions for yourself and the relationships that you're in or want to be in for 2025. What relationships in 2025 do you want to really nurture? To deepen, to spend some time and effort understanding the uniqueness of that person and how you can come together in a beautiful way. What relationships might you need to release in 2025? What relationships are no longer serving you? And it's okay if that happens. It frees up your emotional bandwidth and your time to let other relationships enter into your life. And so not all of our relationships were meant to be forever. But what relationships do you need to release in 2025? What relationships, new relationships do you hope to gain in 2025? And sometimes for this one, it helps to look at various aspects of your life. Is there some health goals that you have for the year? And so you're looking for people that can help support you in healthier habits.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:22:08]:
Are there some things you want to learn for your work that you would love to have? Some others that could teach you and encourage you? Do you want some friends that are more aligned to this season of your life that could nurture and help you in some way? Are there relationships that you just want to have more fun with, various activities or adventures? What relationships are you, are you looking to gain this year? I want to talk specifically about relationships with either your kids or maybe it's your nieces and nephews, grandkids, but relationships between adults and kids. What can you do to be a great mentor or coach to someone that is a youth in your life in some way, someone that's from a different generation, whether it's your kids, your grandkids, just someone you know? What kind of coach or mentor are you looking for in 2025? It could be personally, professionally, but who are you looking to connect with that could operate as a mentor or coach in your life? This next question really connects the reflection questions from last week, the self reflection into relationships. But what are the things that you can do to ensure that you show up in your relationships in the best way possible? And because we're all unique, I recommend that you make a list of that inner circle of your life, personally and professionally. Who are those people that are the front row seats? And then ask yourself that question. What do you need to do to show up the best you can in that relationship? And then go through that list of your inner circle and ask yourself, what is it about that person's uniqueness that I could do a better job honoring for them to hold up the mirror and help them see themselves as the unique, authentic person that they are? What could you do to honor that person's uniqueness and authenticity and differences? And again, connecting last week's reflection questions to this week. It's nearly impossible to have really solid relationships in our lives without honoring the stillness and the nervous system regulation that we need to have those great connections. And so as you're thinking about these relationships, always remember that it starts with you. So as you're thinking about that inner circle of relationships, make some notes of what are the things that you can do to really invest in that relationship that matters so much to you, that they are your inner circle personally and professionally.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:25:36]:
What are some goals that you have for each relationship? One of mine when my kids were little. This is going to sound really bad probably, but I was this frenetic, working, traveling, exhausted mom. And I set a goal to make more eye contact, to sit and really connect with my kids and not to multitask and pretend listen because I was so tired from the day that I couldn't really connect. And now I realize that I understand the nervous system better of it. Getting more rest would have been the main goal, but I set that intention to make sure that I sat down and made real eye contact, heartbeat to heartbeat, eyeball to eyeball. So that's a good one for any relationship that you really care about is to really put things aside and listen. So the power move of great connection is to become the best listener. So what can you do to become the best listener possible in 2025? All right, Jo, that's it for today.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:26:42]:
I hope you will go back and spend some time on each of these questions with your journal or just revisit it from time to time and see, see what bubbles up. All right, I'll be back next week with some reflection questions about career. Love you mean it.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:27:00]:
I'm not coming down. I never locked it.
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession [00:27:06]:
Thanks for being here. You can follow us on Instagram, businessishuman 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.