Love Your Work with Catherine Bell

george grombacher 0:01
Well, blood for this is George G. And the time is right. welcome today’s guest strong apparel for Katherine Bell. Catherine, are you ready to do this?

Catherine Bell 0:07
Yes, I am. And thank you so much for having me, George. It’s great to be with you. And it’s great to be with everybody who is listening.

george grombacher 0:18
Let’s go. I love it. Catherine is the founder of the awakened company. She is a profit 200 founder best selling award winning author, culture and leadership consultant. The book is The Awakened company. Katherine, I’m excited to have you on Telcel. Everybody personalized more about your work, and why you do what you do.

Catherine Bell 0:40
So personal life? Well, that’s a very interesting question. I am a mother, a wife, I’m godmother to 10. Kids, I play tennis, I love to win serve. I also really believe in giving back to community. So involved in the Science Center, I’m involved with the impact society. And I also have something called The Awaken project, which helps female entrepreneurs who are in need spectrum businesses so that they can make a life for themselves. In terms of work, I founded a company called the awakened company. And our vision is to ignite and sustain the fire within with passion, purposefulness, and playfulness. Our whole focus is on how do we awaken ourselves first relationships. And then our teams. If you think of a drop in the ocean, the first drop is awakening ourselves, then the next ripple is awakening our relationships. And the next ripple is awakening our teams and organizations. And everything we do helps to bring humanity back into organizations. And I do this based on having been really a serial entrepreneur. So I’ve been in the seat of leaders. And just I just want to share all the kinds of mistakes I’ve made, so that people don’t repeat them. And it’s been a heck of a lot of fun. I have amazing partners that I work with and really thrilled to to share the work with more people.

george grombacher 2:12
Awesome. Why bring humanity back into organizations?

Catherine Bell 2:18
So, first of all, there’s something I want everybody to know, that business Reshet says if we focus two thirds on our corporate culture, and 1/3 on financial success, that that is where alchemy happens. That is where magic happens. The least performing organizations are those that focus solely on the bottom line. Yet often when I meet with CEOs, they’ll say and leaders will say you know, I want you to help me Kath, bring that and bring our company from zero to a billion dollars in five years like you did that other company? And my answer is, that’s the wrong focus. Really, we have to focus on what problems are we solving. And then again, to dissect it from the lens of this why you asked me such a great question. Why do this? Because the majority of people are not engaged at work. Secondly, when you think of relationships, most people will rate the time with their boss is the worst time of their day. And then thirdly, the Thirdly is most businesses don’t survive past nine years. So what we’re doing what we’ve been doing in the past hasn’t worked. So now what we do is we bring in how do we become more self aware as leaders and I believe everybody’s a leader. And George the moment we call somebody, a follower, the behavior actually denigrates so their behavior degrades. So how do we bring in some more self awareness. So we do mindfulness, we do Enneagram sessions, we do many different things to help bring in more self awareness. And when it comes to relationships, I’m just trying to give people like little hacks that they can apply to their, their lives now. Because I don’t really think we have a moment to lose. Like I really, I really don’t, for the sake of our children, for the sake of future generations, for the sake of our planet we don’t. So second, when it comes to relationships, there’s so many easy things that we can do, such as positively notice each other. And so often we don’t do this. I was at a session recently, and there were the presidents of universities. And one of the president said the most powerful thing I did every day was I wrote thank you notes to people. So really, just positively noticing each other is one hack that every person can do to improve engagement, improve the relationship and spend time one on one with each other from a heartful and mindful and spacious place. The third one in terms of our teams is begin to measure our culture and often that is not Done. Well, you say, Kathy, you know, how do you measure culture? Here are some examples, measure whether a number one, do you actually have a vision? Most leaders who I meet with, when I say what’s your vision, they ramble for like 510 minutes or someone else on the team, they ramble for another 510 minutes. They don’t know what their vision is. And unless we know what our intention is, for organizations, it’s really challenging to measure anything else. So number one, do we have a clear vision? Do people know it? Do we have clear values? Do people know them? And are we measuring them and measuring them in terms of how we hire who we hire, etc. So there are some very simple acts that every person can do. And let’s say you’re not a leader, you can do this anyway. I really invite in everybody to kind of own their experience and own their own leadership and their own, empower themselves.

george grombacher 5:54
I love it. We don’t have a moment to lose. Yet we don’t act that way.

Catherine Bell 6:02
No, we don’t. And yet, death is a great reminder. Because none of us know when we’re really gonna go. So why aren’t we savor the moments that we have now? Why are we not fully experiencing them, embodying them? And why are people cutting off their lifeblood to use your term life, let it work, we can’t be cutting out parts of ourselves and parts of our being at work. And at the same time, I don’t I know this, there’s this whole thing about bring your whole self to work. I do believe in proper boundaries. Like I do believe we need proper boundaries. And I think our humanity, we’re asking, Well, I think it’s time to bring our humanity wherever we go. Because we don’t have a moment to lose. So if we’re shut off from that source, then how can how are we actually being because when, when we take a moment we pause, we get into that creative flow, we’re actually more productive. So I think we don’t have a moment to lose, we all need to kind of realize how if today, were my last day, how do I actually want to live it and behave from that place?

george grombacher 7:23
Agreed. I wrote down, we haven’t figured out how to work yet. It’s pretty, it’s pretty amazing that the vast majority of us are working in roles or jobs that we don’t like, are we actively disengaged in it. And that’s, and that’s just crazy, it’s like chicken in the egg kind of thing, am I doing what I need to be doing as an individual to change that, and as an organization, I, there’s an opportunity, it’s not my job to do that. Maybe it is to help foster that

Catherine Bell 7:54
you’re raising a very important point. And I think people need to take responsibility for their own experience. So believe, I believe everybody should create a personal aim. That reminds them of why they’re here every day, and then live from that personal aim, place that personal why. And when we do that, then our VISTAs at work will open up. Because all of a sudden, everything will have more meaning associated with it. Because actually, everything you do at work is meaningful. And what so people are just disconnected from meaning and belonging at work. And and I would invite in that it’s time to bring our full selves. In terms of okay, I am doing this because I know what my aim is I know what my focus is, I know how I’m going to direct my attention. I there’s kind of two mnemonics that I use. And that’s one is ABC. So what’s my attitude? What’s my behavior? What’s my commitment, ABC, and tip for everybody to take responsibility for that? The other is intention, awareness, action. So what’s your intention? Are you bringing it into your awareness? And are you acting from that place? Because when we do that, whether it’s whether we’re sweeping the floor, taking care of our kids, or in a boardroom, all of a sudden, everything matters. And it’s finding meaning and belonging wherever we are, and wherever we show up. The challenge is, though, where so often people are so disconnected from from that and not knowing or considering what their intention is. So we’re really talking about the self awareness piece of it. Have the awakened companies process the self development place, how are we awakening ourselves? Because really, that whole first drop if we can’t get that first dropping nighted, then it’s very hard to move the other drops. You know, it’s hard to awaken our relationships if we aren’t kind of present with ourselves. And we’ve been doing this for a number of decades. And I remember I get up in the boardroom, and I’d say, Okay, we’re gonna call it centering, because centering felt more safe than mindfulness at the time, a couple decades ago. And I say, Okay, we’re gonna do a centering break. And I’d be like, the only woman in the room and I’d be sweating going, Oh, my gosh. And always people felt better, after they just took a pause before starting the meeting. So now there’s boards of directors starting with centering before moving into their agenda. And that’s incredibly powerful, just to take a moment, just to take the pause.

george grombacher 10:52
So in a lot of ways we are sleepwalking through our days in our lives, and we’re just, we either don’t know, we don’t recognize or realize this, this can be totally different. A life of feeling engaged and feeling like I’m doing important work is I’m already doing it. It’s just just flipping the switch a little bit.

Catherine Bell 11:18
Hmm, very much. So it’s flipping the switch to bring our intention? And do you have an intention, do a personal aim, George,

george grombacher 11:32
I am working to help people get better at money so they can live how they want.

Catherine Bell 11:36
See? Exactly. So you’re able to just say that the majority of you are unlike 99% of people. Most people don’t have that aim. And yet, what’s interesting is, the more we bring that intention, and actually the more financially successful we will be over the long run. It’s not mutually exclusive. So it’s kind of like we think we put these all these piles in separate dishes, and they’re not mutually they’re not mutually exclusive. Where are we are whole, and we’re interconnected with everything we did do. So for example, with awaken with blue era, one of my other companies, we played with things. So we did things like mindfulness breaks, we did unlimited vacations, we didn’t bring your dog to work days. And this is a number of decades ago. And we were very profitable. And I think we were very profitable as a result of people felt. Welcome, whole, it was exciting. It was innovative. And they they could bring themselves to work. So for example, anyone at anytime could call the call on mindfulness break. And we weren’t doing it for the money alone. We were doing it for for people to have meaningful experiences at work. That was really, when Johanna and I started it. It was really we wanted to create a great company, where people had great experiences. And those great experiences then carried over to the bottom line. not mutually exclusive.

george grombacher 13:17
And was that just was that just obvious to you? You’re way ahead of the curve?

Catherine Bell 13:27
Well, you know, I wrote. So I wrote The Awaken company. It was in process over 14 years ago. And it was published seven years ago, and was republished just recently. And people are like, Oh, this is the book for our time. And I think that’s a challenge for people, for some people is like, I just kind of saw it like, this is the way it should be. And did it. And so yes, it the timing is for now. And yet I was doing it years ago. So I just think, you know, I, and all in this moment. It’s all good. You know, it’s pretty remarkable. It was rereleased, and most business books don’t survive six months. And it’s an honor and a privilege. And I’m thrilled for anybody who reads the book and anybody who and everyone who reads it has a positive impact as a result of reading it. I want to challenge I want everybody to challenge the status quo. businesses, businesses, not working organizations are human communities. So let’s bring humanity back into our workplaces for our future generations for our kids and their kids. And with that long term view, then everything we do in this moment has poignant significance. Well, sir, thanks. Thanks, George.

george grombacher 14:55
This is a book for all time, not just right now it’s gonna be a book. It was a book for 1530 years ago, and it’d be a book 1530 years from today, Katherine? Yes. And

Catherine Bell 15:05
more books on the way. More surprising books on the way.

george grombacher 15:10
I love it. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for coming on. Where can people learn more about you and your work with consulting and where can people pick up their copy of the awakened company?

Catherine Bell 15:22
So awaken company can be found on Amazon, you can find awaken company and awaken company.com by me, Catherine, our bell on LinkedIn, find us awaken company on Instagram. And I think it’s under the awakened company on Instagram, and Facebook and we’re also on Twitter. And you know, the amazing Sherry has us on Tik Tok, which is like, I feel kinda like who I’m so old to be on Tik Tok. However, she’s got us on Tiktok so we’re on tick tock and sign up to our newsletter because we provide monthly newsletters which are very practical that aim to give everybody life practices to improve their lives.

george grombacher 16:09
Love it. I feel like everybody’s too old to be on tick tock Catherine. Even even 15 year olds are probably told be on tick tock anyway. That is a story for another day. If you enjoyed as much as I did show Catherine your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciates good ideas go to the awakened. Is it awakened company.com Catherine That’s correct. Awaken company.com Go to awakened company.com pick up your copy of the awakened company on Amazon and find Catherine on LinkedIn and also Instagram and Tiktok and I’ll link all those in the notes of the show. Thanks again, Catherine.

Catherine Bell 16:49
Thank you so much, Josh. Thanks for having me.

george grombacher 16:51
And until next time, remember, do your part by doing your best

Transcribed by https://otter.ai