Andrea Hollingsworth | Building Inclusive Workspaces: Compassionate Leadership and Personal Growth

If you're like me, you've probably seen the headlineswildfires, floods, melting ice caps and thought, where's the hope? Well, this show brings it back. It's called Planet Visionaries, hosted by Alex Honnold. Yeah, the Alex from Free Solo. But now he's climbing a different mountain, saving the only planet we've got. Every episode reminds us that optimism isn't naive, it's a strategy. You'll hear from explorers and scientists and storytellers who aren't talking about the problem. They're living the solution. I want you to check out the upcoming episode with Mark Ruffalo, actor, conservationist and all around force of good as he and Alex break down how storytelling can spark real change and move communities to action. Because if leadership is about vision, then this is what modern leadership looks like. Courage, clarity and a belief that that progress is possible. In partnership with the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative, this is Planet Visionaries. Listen or watch now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you're tuned in right now. You know, as leaders, we talk about performance all the time. Business, performance, mindset, focus. But let's be real. Performance shows up in every part of life. Half of young people today face psychosexual challenges at some point. Things like performance anxiety, low desire, or just feeling off. It's normal, it's human. We just don't talk about it enough. And that's where Mojo comes in. Mojo is the world's first AI sex and relationship therapist. Built from over 50 years of sexology research, it gives you short guided sessions that help you reduce anxiety, rebuild confidence and improve communication all privately, on your own time. I tried it myself and what I love is how practical it is. It's judgment free, it's easy to use, and it's actually doable. No pressure, no awkwardness. Just real tools that help you understand yourself and your relationships better. This isn't about quick fixes. It's about learning to show up with confidence and calm in moments that matter the most. Head to mojo so MickUnplugged for your 7 day free trial and start feeling the difference. That's Mojo so mcunplugged because great leaders don't avoid tough conversations. They grow through them. Mojo offers educational psychological support and is not a substitute for medical care.

What is it that makes people transform for the better? What is it that fuels positive healing and change in human lives?

It's in our human DNA to do two things. To care and offer help. What are some things that you're seeing organizations do Wrong or struggle with the most where you bring the impact.

Always start with self compassion. We have to hustle and grind all the time and we have to over perform. And if we don't at any point, our worth is under threat.

Just be you right. Show up as you every day and the surroundings actually adjust and adapt.

Yeah. The power of vulnerability, the power of authenticity. Being real, being you.

Welcome to Mick Unplugged where we ignite potential and fuel purpose. Get ready for raw insights, bold moves and game changing conversations. Buckle up. Here's Mick. Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to another exciting episode. And today's guest is a distinguished consultant, speaker and academic with an extensive expertise in organizational psychology and leadership development. As the founder of Hollingsworth Consulting, she has dedicated her career to helping organizations enhance their leadership capabilities and foster inclusive work environments. Her deep understanding of human behavior and commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion have made her a trusted advisor and thought leader in her field. Please join me in welcoming the insightful, the innovative, the influential Minnesota's own, Ms. Andrea Hollingsworth. Andrea, how are you doing today, dear?

I'm great. Minnesota's own.

I can't do the act.

Sing as good as I know it's okay. I don't expect you to. I'm going to do it for you.

There we go. There we go. You know, I was telling you offline, one of my really good friends is from Minnesota, and every once in a while she'll give me a little word that I've never heard before or an emphasis. I'm like, oh, yeah, I forgot, you're from Minnesota.

Yeah. It's wonderful to be here. Thanks for the invite.

I'm honored to actually have you on. And there's so many things that I know we can talk about, but I want to start with this, Andrea. You know, I'll make unplugged. We talk about going deeper than your why. Right? And really being fueled by your purpose or your because, as I like to call it. So for Andrea and all the amazing things that you do and the things that you help organizations with, I love to know, like, what's your. Because what's your reason for taking this path and saying every day, this is my purpose, this is my mission?

Yeah, well, that's the question, isn't it? You know, my. My stepfather, who had such an influence on me, used to talk about the burn in the belly. You know, what's the burn in the belly? And that has stuck with me. And so I try to keep sight of that for so long. For several decades, I have had this burn in the belly question in me of what is it that makes people transform for the better? What is it that fuels positive healing and change in human lives? And I know that's a huge question, but I first started thinking about it in my master's program in my early 20s. My whole career has been really a winding, winding road of exploring that question of healing from different angles. And really early on, what I landed on was that the power of human empathy, of human care, human compassion and trusting connection is absolutely at the core of positive transformation and healing in human life in pretty much every domain. And so for many years, I've been studying various aspects of human relationships. You know, healthy human relationships, relationships that foster wholeness and inclusion and people feeling seen, safe and supported. Because that really is the spot where folks, you know, learn to live into the best of themselves, whether they're a business leader, whether they're a parent, or whether they're just a human being trying to get by in this extremely wounding and confusing and conflicted world that we're all navigating. So that's the like. That's the high level, I would say.

You know, every morning before I walk into a meeting, before I hit record on the podcast, before I lead a team, I start with one scoop AG1. Because leadership starts with energy, clarity, and consistency. And that's exactly what AG1 gives me. A simple foundational habit that keeps me one scoop ahead of the chaos. It's not another supplement sitting on the shelf. It's a microhabit that sets the tone for my day. Inside that one scoop, superfoods, B vitamins, antioxidants, probiotics, and functional mushrooms that support your energy, focus, and overall wellness. Especially in seasons like this. Travel, long days and short nights. AG1 keeps me grounded. I don't chase health anymore. I lead it. If you've been looking for something to help you stay consistent, stay fueled, and stay ready, get AG1. Is that move? I use it. You should, too. Head to drinkag1.com Mick to get a free welcome kit with an AG1 flavor sampler and a bottle of vitamin D3K2 when you first subscribe. That's drinkag1.com MC because great leaders don't just prepare for the day, they prepare their body for it. You know, people always ask how I juggle everything. The podcast, the book, the events, the coaching, and the team. Well, here's the truth. I don't do it alone. I've got a new teammate, my notion agent. When I'm prepping for an episode of Mick Unplugged. It pulls every note, every bio, every question I've ever written, organizes it into my show template, and even suggests new angles based on past interviews. And it's like having a producer who knows exactly how I think, only faster. Notion brings all your notes, docs, and projects into one connected space that just works. It's seamless, flexible, powerful, and actually fun to use with AI built right in. You spend less time switching between tools and more time creating great work. And now with Notion Agent, your AI doesn't just help with work, It. It finishes it. I still make the decisions, but now the heavy lifting done. Try Notion with notion agent@notion.com Mick. That's all lowercase. Notion.com Mick to try our new AI teammate, Notion Agent today. And when you use our link, you're supporting our show, notion.com Mick. No, I love that. And so I want to go unplug a couple of things that you said, or at least one in particular. So you said that your stepfather had a huge influence on your life. Can you talk a little bit about that and how that shaped who you are today?

Absolutely, yeah. He's actually a lot of the reason why I talk about compassionate leadership, because compassionate leadership made a big difference in his life. And then he became a compassionate leader to many people. I call it compassion contagion.

So.

So back in the 60s, so he passed away in 2016, and so he's been gone for a while. But back in the 1960s, he was a young man navigating his way in the world. He grew up on a farm in rural Minnesota, and he kind of tried college, but that wasn't for him. And around the age of 20, he got a job working at a manufacturing plant in Anoka, Minnesota, which is where I'm from. And at the time, he was dating a girl named Tess, and Tess got pregnant unexpectedly. And back in those days, what people often did is they just got married. And so that's what they did. They got married. And by the time my stepdad was 24, he found himself a family man, the father of three young children, and he had a job working on the floor of a manufacturing plant. Life was going along okay until Tess was diagnosed with a fatal liver disorder. And so then at the tender age of 24, my stepdad found himself a widower with three young children under the age of five. And it was devastating. Now, my stepdad, I'll call him Jerry. That was his name, Jerry. His boss at Federal Cartridge where he worked was a guy named RB Old rb. I grew up hearing stories of old RB Because RB Saw Jerry struggling. He observed Jerry. He started coming in late to work. You know, he was clearly hungover from another night of, you know, closing out the bars in Anoka, Minnesota. He knew that Jerry was dropping his three kids off at Ma and Pa's for long stretches and just really, really struggling to hold onto himself, right? And old R.B. you know, he believed in Jerry. He had been the one to hire him. You know, here's a kid who knows how to work hard. Here's a kid who cares about other people. Here's a kid who's got prom, who's got that burn in the belly, you know, he gave it some time. He was compassionate. But after a while, after enough, you know, late. Late showing up to work, he was kind of frustrated. So he pulled my stepdad aside and he said, look, kid, I know I can't even begin to understand what you must be going through right now, and I feel for you. I really, really do feel for you. But you're coming in late to work. Everybody here knows you're drinking too much, you're dropping your kids off at your parents for long straight, that your kids need you right now, and you gotta pull yourself together. And if you don't, you've got a pink slip coming. But here's the other thing, kiddo. I care about you. And say, I've been going to the local AA group at the local parish for a long time, and if you'd ever like to come, we'd love to have you. And so that was a turning point for my dad. In a moment of deep struggle and of deep trauma, my dad did indeed start to go to the AA group. And with the sort of the tough love, compassionate leadership, support of RB and others in his workplace, he was able to really find healing and to really find himself again in the lowest moment of his life. And he went on actually to become vice president of Federal Cartridge. Later in life, mentored so many people who were going through hard things. He was one of the first to advocate for hiring women and promoting women back in the 60s and 70s at federal. And I'll be vulnerable and share. Even me, myself, in my late 20s and early 30s, realized, you know, I think I have a problem, you know, relying too much on alcohol in my own, you know, work life and personal life. This is impacting me. I sat down and I talked to my stepdad, and I said, you know, what can you tell me? And he said, annie. He always called me Annie. He said, you Know, why don't you come with me to that aa? He was still going to that same AA group.

Wow.

And so he. So that's a personal story of just how compassionate leadership has made a difference. But my mom also extremely compassionate person. And so those are some of the stories that have really driven me.

I love that. And what I love, and I know about you is you take that same energy, that same moral compass, and that's what you're doing with leaders and organizations today. And so one, I appreciate you for sharing that story and most importantly, just the impact that you're having with organizations I truly admire. So thank you for that too.

Well, thank you. I, I truly, you know, we're in a unique moment right now societally, you know, at least here in the United States, it's tense right now. People are, there's a lot going on, you know, economically, politically, socially. We have a mental health crisis on our hands. We have, you know, employees still record numbers of burnout and exhaustion and, you know, this whole quiet quitting thing. It gets called different things, but it's just basically workers feeling like I can't even anymore and I'm going to show up physically but be checked out mentally. And so it's really my joy to go in and say, how can we give leaders, you know, everyone from frontline managers to the very top, you know, the C suite leaders, the tools and the skills, because compassion is a skill. There's a lot of research out there showing that, you know, it's not that you're either born compassionate or not everybody has the capacity to develop skills, interpersonal skills, to be more aware, to be more empathetic and to be more action oriented for others. And so to go in and just give leaders those skills that will make people feel seen, feel safe and supported at work. Because I believe work should be a place where at least we're not re traumatized, you know. And you know, I've also had many years of experience as a psychotherapist. And you would be amazed at the number of clients I have had who have come in and said, I have experienced verbal abuse by my manager, you know, outright yelling. A lot of times it's more insidious, you know, those microaggressions that wear on you day after day after day, assuming that you don't know something or you can't do something or, you know, you're not included in this conversation or whatnot because of some aspect of your identity. And that's there too. And that's just as destructive but there's also this outright, you know, like, verbal abuse that can happen in the workplace, too. And I think it's evidence of human pain. It's evidence that we all need reminders and we need helps for. How can we care for one another? We're built to care for one another. We. We are created to care for. It's in our DNA. And we all need that permission to care. And we. We need the skills to do it in ways that are, you know, that certainly are professional and you have boundaries at work, but that really do build those humanizing connections that are going to help people heal and show up and do their best work.

That's amazing, Annie. And I'm calling you Annie. It's not.

That's fine.

I love it.

My favorite people call me Annie.

There you go. It's also my mother's name.

So, you know, there we go.

Yeah, so you get to be Annie. I love what you said about it's in our human DNA to care. I also say this when I coach salespeople and I coach leaders. I actually say that, too. I say it's in our human DNA to do two things. To care and offer help.

Yes.

Because I don't care who you call. And the folks that know me know I always use this analogy. If you call Domino's Pizza right now, how are they going to answer the phone? Thanks for calling Domino's. How can I help you?

How can I help you?

Yeah, Domino's knows 100% of the time you're calling to order pizza. Hey, thanks for calling Domino's. What's your order? Right.

Yeah.

Because it's in our human DNA to help. I would say everyone that's listening or watching this, whether you own a business, leader of a business, work at a business, whatever it is, someone at your organization answers the phone, how can I help you? But it's so robotic that we don't actually try to really offer help. And I know that that's one of the things that you really embrace or coach and teach is the care, the empathy with what you do with leaders. What are some things that you're seeing organizations do wrong or struggle with the most? Where you bring the impact.

Yep, absolutely. So one of the things that really gets in the way of offering help is our own. Like, if you're a leader, sometimes your own either exhaustion and suffering yourself, or I've often seen your own inner critic or your own perfectionism really can get in the way of being aware of other people and supportive of other people. So when I Work with leaders around compassionate leadership. I always start with self compassion because, you know, so many of us have these muscled up inner critics that nobody else sees or hears and we just feel harangued and oppressed by these perfectionistic standards. And we're so hard on ourselves. We've got shame and we've got all kinds of inner scripts going where like we have to hustle and grind all the time and we have to over perform. And if we don't at any point, our worth is under threat. That's the society we live in, right? We've got this like, you're never enough thing going on everywhere for everybody. And so leaders, especially the research shows that leaders are often very hard on themselves and that can impact the way they show up for others. And so I actually have a story about that, about that myself. One of the reasons I'm so passionate about self compassion is that my inner critic basically ruined my academic career. I used to be a professor. I spent my 20s, my early 30s, climbing the ranks of academia. And by the time I was 34, I had like arrived at the top of the mountain. I had gotten this tenure track job at Boston University. And all my colleagues were like, how did you do it? And I was like, oh, you know, I love what I do and I work hard and I'm so passionate. All that was true. But what nobody else saw is that this inner critic was driving me all the time. All the time. I remember one time I was giving a presentation at Princeton on ancient meditative spiritual practices in the medieval era and modern day neuroscience. All right? I was putting those two things together. That was what I did. And the presentation went really, really well, I thought, except that the whole time there was this gray haired scholar in the front row and he was scowling. And I remember I was thinking to myself, I don't think the Q and A is going to go very well because this guy. And I was right. When I was done, he stood up and he raised his hand and he said, excuse me, did you consult the original Latin of the medieval text that you were referencing? Because in the, in the original Latin it seems to indicate that, you know, and I don't even remember what he said, but he, he went on to undercut my entire argument based on the fact that I was relying on an English translation of this. I don't know Latin, right? So I handled it okay in the moment, but my inner critic, she sprang into action. She was like, why didn't you consult the original Latin? Because you don't know Latin, do you? You better get your ass in gear girl. Like in addition to all the teaching and publishing and research and mentoring and blah blah blah, you better learn Latin now. And so I found myself like 3:30am every single day, seven days a week. I'm up looking at my Latin flashcards.

Have you ever felt like the banking system is stacked against you? I remember overdraft fees hitting me at the worst time and feeling like I was always playing catch up with my money. That's why I love Chime. Chime understands that every dollar counts. When you set up direct deposit, you get access to features that actually help you get ahead. Getting paid up to two days early fee free, overdraft coverage up to $200 and no monthly maintenance fees. Chime has already spotted its members over $30 billion. That is real progress. Plus, with over 47,000 fee free ATMs nationwide, more than the top three national banks combined, you can access your money when you need it without worrying about fees. I use Chime and you should too. Work on your financial goals through Chime today. Open an account in 2 minutes@chime.com mic that's chime.com Mick Chime feels like progress.

Chime is a financial technology company, not a bank.

Banking services and debit card provided by.

The Bancorp Bank NA or Stride Bank.

NA members FDIC Spot Me Eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply.

Timing depends on submission of payment file. Fees apply at out of network ATMs. Bank ranking and number of ATMs according.

To US News and World Report 2023.

Chime checking account required the holidays are approaching and everyone knows that this time of year, the sooner you can get things done, the better for both shoppers and businesses. The best time to score great deals during the holidays is during that Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend. And if you have your own business, Whether you've been around the block a few times or this is your first year going through the holiday sale rush, the most important thing you can have is a platform that can handle everything that's about to be thrown at you. This is a crucial time for your business and your customers, and with Shopify, you can be sure that your tools and platform are ready for anything that comes your way. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all e commerce in the US from household names to entrepreneurs who will be participating in their first Black Friday Cyber Monday this year. With everything else going on, you probably don't have time to spend hours poring over every little detail in your online store. That's why Shopify's thousands of templates and tools help you streamline website creation and make sure that your site isn't just aesthetically pleasing, but functional and easy to use. Shopify's expedited checkout shop pay saves customer information and reduces hassle. And the best part is that it's been proven to boost conversions, meaning you'll see less abandoned carts and more profits. You can also stress less knowing that Shopify's award winning customer support team is on standby 247 to help with any issues that arise, allowing you to get back to your business as fast as possible. This Black Friday, join the thousands of new entrepreneurs hearing for the first time with Shopify. Sign up for your free trial today@shopify.com realm that's shopify.com realm go to shopify.com realm and make this Black Friday one to remember.

I burned out. I burned out at the age of 36. I walked away from my dream job at BU and I sometimes wonder, you know, if I would have learned to give myself a little bit of grace. I mean, I'm all for high standards. Healthy striving is one thing, but it's this maladaptive perfectionism, that's what researchers call it, that really, it ruined me. It also, you know, it really impacted the way that I showed up for my students, for my colleagues, for my research assistants. I was just, I had this inner criticality and like constant anxiety and stress about performance and it was impacting everybody. And so to get back to your question of what hinders leaders showing up for others, I think we have to start really close to home and help leaders realize like a, you need to be aware, you need to be curious about what is, you know, when you make a mistake or when you feel insecure about something. What are you telling yourself? What is your inner critic saying to you? Right? And just be curious about that. And then to try to connect with other people and try to say, like, look, you know, I need to talk this through. Like, am I overblowing this? Are my standards? Like, you know, you have to have people you can talk to about your perfectionism and about your anxiety so that they can go like, oh, sweetheart, I. I've made that mistake a million times. You are doing awesome so you can get some perspective. And then you have to learn to talk to yourself differently and say, like, you know, I made a mistake. I'm a human. Mistakes are a part of life. I'm going to choose kindness, you know, and if there's accountability needed. I'm going to choose accountability too, and move on. Because if we can't be aware of that inner critic and soften it with some kindness and with some, hey, you know, I can support myself and learn and grow, but I'm not going to be hard on myself. If we can't do that, we stay in this very kind of amped up, anxious, hypercritical mode. And I don't know, Mick, have you ever been around somebody who just oozes criticality? Like you can tell they're hard on themselves and other people?

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

It's in their. It's in their energy, right?

Correct, correct.

And I used to be that person. And so what I do is I start out by helping leaders work on themselves. And what that does then is it frees them up. All of a sudden they get rid of a lot of mental noise and they learn to bounce back more quickly and then they can be more aware of other people, like, hey, what are you going through? How can I support you? Hey, are you down on yourself for whatever mistake? It does so many wonders. It just calms us down so that we can truly be present in the ways that we want to and need to as leaders.

You know, I love that. And I will even say a step deeper for the person that's not a leader of an organization, because all of us that are listening and watching, even if you don't lead an organization, you're probably a leader in your household or a leader in your community, right?

So everyone's a leader. We lead ourselves through our lives.

Right? Everyone's a leader. So I would say that that is also critical for the non business leaders is don't be overly critical of yourself. I would say one of the top four, five things that most humans do that adds to mental health stress is you're overcritical. You're thinking of what every 2 billion people in the world could be thinking about you. And I have this saying, just be you. Everybody else will adjust. I actually got that shout out to comedian Mookie G. Right? One of my really good friends and comedian, he gave me a shirt that literally says that be yourself. They'll adjust. And I think that that's really important.

Can you send me a shirt that says that shirt?

I will totally send you that shirt.

I want that shirt.

Yes, I got you covered offline. I'll get your size and get it shipped to you. But it's really important that people understand whether you're a leader in a business, leader in your Household leader in your community, always, authentically be you. Because people can see when you're faking.

Yes, you can.

People can see when you don't believe in you. Right. And most importantly, people can see when you're trying too hard. Right. Even if you're not faking, but you're trying too hard, People see that, and it comes across weird. And we do those things as humans because we think that it's our purpose to either please everyone, to be the person or people that people want us to be. And that's not the case. And I know that. That you talk a lot about that in your psychology as well, too. Like just. Just be you. Right. Show up as you every day, and the surroundings actually adjust and adapt.

Yeah. That the power of vulnerability, the power of authenticity, being real, being. Being you is so critical, you know, it's critical in every area you mentioned. Maybe a lot of listeners, maybe they're not a business leader, but maybe they're a leader in their household. You know, what is it like when maybe you're. You're having maybe a tense moment with your partner, with your child, and you just take a deep breath and you say, I gotta be honest with you now. Right now. I just. Here's what I'm feeling, you know, or, you know, maybe make a mistake and take a deep breath and say, you know, I gotta be honest with you. I need to apologize. You know, instead of, like, we put up these masks and it distances us from ourselves and from other people. But in organizational context, it's really powerful when leaders are vulnerable, when they choose to just show up as themselves and they're not putting on anything. That's actually another big element of healing, especially when you've got work contexts where there's a lot of tension going on, maybe around, you know, really sensitive subjects. I actually have a story there. So a number of years ago, I was working with a leader in a key division of the city of Minneapolis. I'm not going to say which one, but. And his team. And in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, a member of his team responded publicly to that event, like, made a public statement about that event that ended up really wounding and hurting some other members of his team. So he got the contacts, somebody made a public statement. It was just like other people were just like, oh, hell no.

Right.

And so he found himself then on a zoom meeting shortly after that. And everybody was there. You know, the people who were pissed off about the public statement and also the folks who had crafted the public statement were on the call, everybody's there. This is what we're going to address. And really, all these tensions around inclusion and race and privilege, it's all there, and people are feeling all the feels. And he gets on and he says he takes a deep breath, and he goes, everybody, I need to start out with by taking a deep breath. He said, I can feel my heart pounding. I can feel myself. You know, I can feel my body. He said, I just. I'm feeling a lot right now. I'm feeling a lot of grief. I'm sad about the pain in our city. I'm sad about the pain here on this call. And then he led everybody in, just taking a few deep breaths together. And then he said, I want you to know that whatever you're feeling here today, before we get started, maybe you're grieved as well. Maybe you're angry, maybe you're confused. He said, all of those feelings are welcome. He said, if you didn't feel them like I'm feeling them, you wouldn't be human. And more than anything, we here in this division need to hold on to our humanity. And so he gave everyone a minute to kind of connect with themselves and what they're feeling. He laid down some ground rules for safe dialogue, and then they dived in or dove in. And it was really a turning point in this group starting to heal some of these deep divisions around culture, race, inclusion, privilege that had been, you know, like, of course, the. The George Floyd murder, like, brought everything to the fore and for all, you know, for so many of us. And so. But that conversation, just by him being vulnerable and real, not coming in with, like, all right, I'm going to fix this, and here's how it's going to go. And hiding behind some kind of mask of, like, I've got it all figured out. He didn't have it all figured out. He was feeling just as, you know, amped up and grieved and probably angry and confused as everybody else. And just by giving people permission to be human, it opened the way for actual deep healing in the team. So that is so powerful.

Agreed, Agreed. And you teach a lot of that. And one of the things that one. Annie, I could talk to you all day, right? So I could totally talk to you all day. One of the things that I know you're really amazing at is culture within organizations. Right. And. And again, just where we talked about where leaders go wrong with themselves, I also think leaders miss the boat on culture. One of the things. One of my biggest pet peeves in the World are mission and vision statements. Because. And I say this when I speak publicly, right? Like, I guarantee you 90% of your staff and I don't care how many team members you have, can't recite your mission and vision statement with passion and energy, right? They probably don't know it. And most of the leaders don't know their own mission and vision statement.

That's true, isn't it?

They hired a marketing company and everyone's mission and vision statement sounds pretty much the same. I believe in having because statements, right? Like, you know, one of my companies that I own, our because statement is because results matter. We always show up, easy to understand, easy to communicate, easy to feel, because results matter. Another one is because we care about the community and what we serve. We're always there, right? And so I think if businesses went with because statements, or they don't even have to be because, but really had a handful of core values that they really talked about and really communicated and were transparent with their teams and had their team involvement in what those core values really were, business culture would immediately improve. Not going to say it's going to change overnight, but you would see an immediate improvement when you get rid of mission and vision statements that nobody cares or knows about.

Right?

Really talk about the heart of this is our reason, this is our purpose, and let's go from there. So I'd love your thoughts.

That's right.

I love everything you just said, Mick. I just, I don't know that I have a whole lot to add to it. I, you know, just like we're built to care and connect with. With other people, we're also built to have meaning in our lives. And I think there's this dearth of meaning in work lately. People just go and they don't know. They don't even know why they're there. And so when leaders can say, can, as you said, work with teams to say, this is our. Because this is what, you know, this is the reason that we're all doing what we're doing. And to keep that top of mind, it meets this deep, almost spiritual need in people to have meaning in what, in the work that they do. And when people don't have that, when they don't have shared meaning, I really think it's a key driver for a lot of the alienation, the isolation, the, the irritability, the conflict, the exhaustion and disengagement that we see in teams. And so I think culture is built in those really small moments of true, genuine human interaction where people are building Relationships of trust and connection and where they're reminding one another, whether it's a small, like, hey, here's a story of an interaction I had yesterday with a client where, you know, let's say your because is because you, I don't know, maybe you're in the financial industry and because you want to help your clients have confidence in a strong, secure financial future for themselves and their children. I don't know, I just made that up. You know, maybe you tell a story about someone who's on the verge of retirement and that maybe you've been working with and like who they had a really emotional moment with you or they were like, oh my gosh, like I did, I did it, I think I can retire. And sharing little things like that that exemplify whatever your because is with your colleagues is so important. Those stories, those human connections that remind everybody, like, oh, right, you know, right, this is what it's all about. And that's such a gift not just for the company. Obviously the organization is going to do better when people feel that deep, authentic motivation to show up with all of themselves. Right. But it's also such a gift just on a human level. We spend so much time at work and when we can feel that sense of like, wow, my life matters here at work, it goes way beyond business goals. It goes into like human blessing is what I want to say.

Totally agree. Annie. Again, like I just said, I could talk to you forever, but I know you're a very busy person and I won't hold you hostage like that. But what does Annie have going on now? What do you have coming up in the future? Talk to us about, Annie.

Sure. So I am so excited. I do quite a bit of keynote speaking, so I love to get in front of audiences and inspire them to be more radically self compassionate because we all need that, but also more compassionate leaders. And so yeah, keynote speaking is something I love to do. I have workshops where I work with groups of leaders on things like becoming more aware, becoming more self compassionate, becoming more empathetic, becoming more resilient, doing hard things with heart, having difficult conversations, making difficult business decisions while still being compassionate. Whole workshop on that. But then I also do coaching, so I'm trained as a therapist, but I also, you know, have coaching skills. And so I kind of blend them. I do something kind of interesting called therapeutic coaching. And so I work with leaders who feel like maybe they need some healing but they also want to keep track of, you know, what are the goals that I'm working towards as well, in my professional career, so that's a little bit of what I've got going on. I also published a book this year, just a couple months ago, called the Compassion Advantage How Top Leaders Build More Humanizing Workplaces. And that's available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, anywhere you could. Anywhere you want to get a book. It's. You can. You can find it.

How about this? How about the first 10 people? And whenever I do this, I always get like 100 in, so I always have to let people know it's for the first 10. The first 10 people. I will purchase a book for you if you message me Annie. That way I'll know, Annie leader.

Nice.

I will purchase a book and ship it out to the first ten.

Oh, that's fantastic.

How about that?

I love it. I love it. That's fantastic.

Yeah. And what about your social handles? How do you want people to connect and follow you and find you?

Yeah. So if you're on the Interweb, you can just type in hollingsworthconsulting.com and that's my website. And then LinkedIn is my main social handle. You can just search Andrea Hollingsworth, PhD and hopefully I'll come right up. I don't think there's another Andrea Hollingsworth, PhD, but maybe there is. So, yeah, I'd love to connect with any of your listeners if they, you know, if they're interested in working on their inner critic, if they're interested in becoming a more compassionate leader, shifting some culture stuff in their organization, would love to talk to them.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Annie, thank you so much for sharing some time with us today.

It's been such a joy, Mick, to talk with you. We have so many shared passions and so it's been an honor. Thank you.

Absolutely. And to all the listeners and viewers, remember you're. Because is your superpower. Go unleash it. Thank you for tuning in to Mick Unplugged. Keep pushing your limits, embracing your purpose and chasing greatness. Until next time, stay unstoppable.