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Empowering Wellness in Business: Strategies for Leaders · Business Roundtable

0:01
Well, hello everybody, and welcome back to the Business Roundtable podcast. I'm
0:06
excited to have you back. We've got two guests here, one returning guests
0:10
and a brand new guest. For those of you that don't know, my
0:13
name is David Carr Stewart your business. I'm all focused on organizational health,
0:18
helping their teams come together to accomplish great things. And I'm super excited about
0:22
our topic tonight about the power of health and wellness and business, and we're
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going to dive into it here in a moment, but before that, I
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would I introduce both of our guests, and I'll start with our returning guests,
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Stacy Quinoshita. Welcome back, Stacy. Thank you, David. I'm
0:38
happy to be back and happy to be able to interact with Heather too as
0:43
well. So thank you. Absolutely. Yeah. We've really valued your input
0:47
in the past with Stacy, and I've gotten to know Heather through a great
0:52
organization called Powerality, and Heather has just got a wealth of great insights and
0:58
perspectives, and so I'm really excited. Heather. Welcome to the Business Roundtable
1:00
podcast. Oh, thank you, David. I'm so excited to be here.
1:06
I'm so excited to actually meet Stacy in person so to speak. Yes,
1:12
we've had quite wonderful meeting between all of us at different times. I
1:22
love how you know, you make a connection and it just leads you to
1:26
someone else. And and here we are wanting to talk about something so important
1:30
and close to my heart as I know it is yours and Stacy's yeah,
1:36
absolutely yeah. And so we've had and we've had Mo Mauric Sevans on the
1:42
path on the podcast previously, so he's given us some background of powerality Heather,
1:47
which is great and we're really excited to learn about you know, share
1:49
sure your insights there. But yeah, I want to start kind of a
1:53
broad one. And as we before we hit the record button, you guys
1:57
on this, we were talking before this, and I'm i'm I'm I'm acting
2:00
if you will, and truly as as an interested business business owner, are
2:06
you the manager or you the employee? I want to ask some key questions
2:08
of both Stacy and Heather here so that you can be hopefully is the healthiest
2:15
person, uh, in body, mind and soul if you will, in
2:17
your organization? And we've just got some great insights them. So when we
2:23
talk about prioritizing health and wellness in business, because I think we sometimes we
2:30
want to think that we do, but I don't think we don't always think
2:32
about that. And there's some things that maybe, Stacy, we've talked about
2:37
in previous episodes where business owners haven't considered that. But can we talk about
2:42
what you know? Number one? Why why why should we prioritize what's the
2:46
importance of looking at that? Because that's probably a question, right you've gotten,
2:49
Stacy, Why should I look at that? Why should I look at
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this? How health a wellness program er? You know? Why to start
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there? You know, I think that I think that's a good starting point.
2:59
First of all, health and wellness is an important area of our life.
3:05
Period. Without your health, you have nothing, and so you know,
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so let's look at it from just a a personal, you know,
3:14
point of view, personal standpoint. You've got to have your health in order
3:16
to be able to do anything in life. But I think with a lot
3:21
of business owners, maybe I suggest that how they look at it. A
3:24
lot of times business owners won't even take a look at it unless you can
3:30
monetize it, because for them, it's about and there's nothing wrong with that
3:35
it's about creating a workforce that's going to help their business be profitable. So
3:38
if I even look at it from that point of view, if your workforce
3:43
one is it's your biggest expense. You know, peril is one of your
3:46
biggest expense. And if you're investing in bringing in people and hiring them and
3:52
training them, it would be in the best interests of the owner to take
3:57
an interest in the health and wellness of their employees because they have a healthy
4:00
workforce and they able to address a lot of the health issues so they don't
4:06
have turnover and they don't have you know, all of that that's involved with
4:11
replacing a valuable worker. It's going to pretty much affect in a positive way
4:15
their bottom line. So let's look at you know, really, when we
4:18
talk about it from a business owner, they want to hear what how is
4:21
it going to affect their bottom line? So I wanted to address that your
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workforce is your biggest investment, so why not look at how you can help
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them be healthy, because again, it's going to benefit you as the business
4:35
owner. So yeah, whether I say you're taking your head there, so
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you go ahead and time in GA I've read for those of you that don't.
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I follow Heather because she does some amazing articles. By the way,
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both of you do on LinkedIn, and Heather's written a lot about this,
4:50
and there's something I love Heather about, especially the powerality lens and knowing yourself.
4:56
Right, we get it again. Why why is so important to you
5:00
know that we prioritize this particularly in business? Yeah, you know, I
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think first of all, Stacey hit it right on the head. Wellness in
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the workplace is actually a smart strategy, right, It's actually creates a cycle
5:16
of success and positivity. You actually buy it and then cycle is this?
5:24
It's well being enhances business performance. Right, successful business practices promote further well
5:31
being, which bote boosts everything from creativity to efficiency, and it just goes
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round and round and round. So well being is actually imperative for a highly
5:47
successful, well functioning business. And that is true for every employee at every
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level as well as the CEO. Absolutely, it's it's just one of those
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things that you know when your employees are in good health and good spirits,
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their productive, their productivity, their engagement, all of those levels sore,
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right, they go up and they enhance your business outcomes. So when you
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want to know about that bottom line. This is part of that bottom line,
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right. It's actually makes a massive difference to support a work environment that
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has wellness at the top of its priority list. Yeah. Right, And
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I'm glad you said that you mentioned. I don't mean to cut you off,
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David, but you know, a lot of times we talk about health
6:38
and wellness more on a physical level. But you're right, I mean,
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right now, one of the main topics is a mental illness and if you
6:46
if you have a rapid cases of mental illness in your business, it doesn't
6:53
affect the energy levels of your employees. If the physical wellness of your I
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mean, it's all. It it all is what's the word is integrated.
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It's all. It all ties into each other. So I'm glad that you
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mentioned that part of it as well. So I was going to ask you
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either one of you if you have a resource or maybe you guys can share
7:11
with us later, because I think this is so important and as an interest
7:14
in business owner myself and others, is like gauging that or getting feedback from
7:19
your employees or you know, like assessing like you said, Stacey, like
7:23
I know you had talked with one company where you talk with the employee and
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they're like, oh, I could really use this, but the business are
7:27
like I don't need this, I don't I don't have an issue with this.
7:30
But you're like, yeah, but think about the rest of your team,
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So like how would you uh you know, this is going to be
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leading into our next topic about building this culture, but really about assessing if
7:40
you will, or survey or somehow like you're saying how to rate, like
7:45
how are you doing as a company or you know, are you addressing those
7:47
issues? And and again is it hiring you as a consultant stacy to come
7:51
in and assess it and giving them like hey, let me look and see
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where you are where, what's your what's your health and wellness IQ? If
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you will? Absolutely, I think for the small business owner. The challenge
8:03
with small business okay, a lot of times when when we look at assessment,
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you have to look at do they have programs in place for the employees
8:13
to use. Have they implemented different types of strategies to be able to gauge
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because if you if you if you're not doing anything, then how do you
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gauge anything? In other words, you know, unless unless employees are are
8:24
showing up sick all the time, or you have a heavy turnover. So
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I think when it comes to the basic level of an employee or small business
8:31
owner that absolutely has no type of benefits, no type of wellness programs,
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no nothing that's there for the employees to take advantage of, then you have
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to look at from from this the point of view as what is the turnover,
8:46
how often are are my employees calling in sick? What is the employee
8:50
morale in my in my company? And can you can you gauge it?
8:56
I'm sure there are ways to be able to to to measure, but I
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think you have to be creative in the way that you measure those because you're
9:03
not it's not like they're doing a program and you're gauging whether or not they're
9:07
using it. You have no programs in place, and so you've got to
9:09
gauge the behavior of your employees, and from there you can see, well,
9:13
what can we do to help our employees be healthier physically, mentally,
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you know all of that. So I think that's that's the most common one
9:24
because again, when the small business owner makes up about eighty five percent of
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our economy and a lot of them are. You have quite a few that
9:33
are under fifty employees, which means that by law they're not even required to
9:37
offer medical insurance. So how do you That's a whole different conversation in itself
9:43
is to how do you help the small business owner because you're dealing with very
9:48
little tangible information that you can, you know, to be able to gauge
9:56
how their employees are doing and how healthy they are. Other than it's just
10:00
the employee behave and their production or their the results that they're giving the business.
10:05
I don't know ahead what's your take on that one? The small business?
10:09
Now, I absolutely agree with you, and I think that it is
10:15
important to understand that wellness is part of everything. Wellness is part of It
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has to do with our physical health, our emotional health, our mental health,
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our event, environmental health, environmental help me out here, environmental right,
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it's everything, and measuring that really does take some creativity, simply because
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the small business really can't afford a lot, right, they really can't afford
10:48
a lot. But I like what you said those stacy in that your workforce
10:52
is your biggest investment. You know, the reality is that they can see
10:58
the value in promoting wellness within the company, they will see greater returns in
11:05
the end, because when leadership shares in that same goal and provide incentive for
11:13
people to be healthier does come down to the bottom line. So it's possible
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for small businesses actually to make even more money than they thought possible simply by
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allowing for this space of wellness. Right, because wellness is what you do
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and health is the result that you have. Right, help is what you
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do. Wellness is what you do. He is your result. Okay,
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I am so tongue tied forgive me no, no, no, And I'm
11:46
following you. I'm following you. Well, there's a difference. I think
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it's important. Hither you're clarifying, you know that physical health and then the
11:54
wellness, And I think that there's in my experience anyway, I think there's
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a lot we can do to create a space of wellness the environment. Maybe
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we can't. I can't, you know, change somebody's physical diet or there's
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something I can't do. It can't make them go to the gym, per
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se. But I could create a gym space. And I say in my
12:13
office right now, you don't have to hire a shaft to come in and
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prepare meals for everybody, right, But there are some small things that you
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can do, and even just hiring a liaison to come in and evaluate and
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do some of that can help as well. But your leadership in business matters
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just as the leadership in your wellness matters. Right. That leadership has a
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responsibility to set the tone and the mode and the mood and the expectation and
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the quality within the business environment. Absolutely, And you know what, I
12:50
think one of the ways that the most basic is you know, just even
12:54
starting with which is regulated safety. You know, I think that we are
13:00
so we are so sad page. Yeah. Safety. So if you're if
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your staff doesn't feel safe, you got you know, issues with chemicals,
13:09
or or if it's a school with just just areas that are you know,
13:15
people don't feel safe, or procedures you don't have the right procedures in place.
13:18
So let's just start with the basis of what they can control or what
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they have. You know, we're not talking about go out and get a
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whole bunch of spend a whole lot of money on medical insurance. I mean,
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you can start with your basis. But you were mentioned whether that a
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lot of small business owners don't have resources. But I would say this as
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a previous resource. Uh you know, I cut you off? Finished?
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Please, no, no, no, go ahead, no no. Well,
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what I was gonna say is that a lot of small business owners think
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that the only way to provide a wellness program or health program for their employees
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is to provide medical group medical. And that is just not the case.
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There are other okay, there are other resources that are available. And when
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I was a small business owner, I kept saying, I'm too small to
14:11
offer benefits. I can't afford benefits, it can't afford. Everything came out
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was I can't afford I don't have this, I don't have that. And
14:16
then now that I'm on the other side of the spectrum, on the other
14:20
side, I realized that there are in fact resources out there that not only
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doesn't cost the employees any money or very little less than what it would cost
14:31
for them to bring in group medical, but that's not their only option.
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And for me is how do I expend their visions so that they're not just
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in this loop like, Okay, the only way that I can provide this
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wellness you know program for my employees is to be able to dish out,
14:46
you know, all this money for group medical insurance and that again there are
14:50
other resources out there. So I see you got something on the tip of
14:54
your tongue. Head there, go ahead. No, I just agree with
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you so so much, and I do. I get so excited, David
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knows. I just get so excited about what I'm doing and so forth,
15:05
and it just I can barely contain myself because I love everything you're saying,
15:11
you know, But I mean, it's about creating a culture that prioritizes the
15:16
well being, right, right, It doesn't. Wellness is not medical.
15:24
Wellness is not health. Wellness is its own thing, right, and it
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is affected by everything we do, everything we're around, everything we consume,
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everything we put out, and the same with all other people. You touch
15:45
on safety first off, and I have to say, if we treated wellness
15:50
with the same respect that we treat safety in the workforce, and I believe
15:56
it should be so, then there would be no question medical costs would go
16:02
down. Why because they see that even in the companies that have gone ahead
16:07
and been more progressive, they have full on wellness programs, their medical costs,
16:12
their insurance costs for their employees is less. They get to offer their
16:17
employees lower premiums on the stuff that they're doing because they are living a healthier
16:23
lifestyle, they're taking part in the wellness programs, they're feeling better, they're
16:29
missing less work, all of that. So the thing is we just don't
16:33
understand the importance of wellness or where it really falls in right, and in
16:37
the workplace, it's imperative. Yeah, well this, Heeather, I'll lead
16:45
into our kind of topic about how we build the health of all culture because
16:49
here in southern California where Stacy and I just literally saw on the news because
16:55
you were talking about Stacy earlier about people being sick well Metro is one of
17:00
the big bus lines out here, Like twenty five percent of the workforce out
17:04
sick on Friday. Because it wasn't because of pay, they wanted more pay
17:10
or they wanted more benefits. It was because they're not feeling safe in being
17:14
a bus rid because of the people coming on the bus or how they're getting
17:18
in there. So it's two things in safety, right and then them just
17:22
feeling comfortable in where they're working and doing their job. They know how to
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ride, they know how to drive the buses every day. They can get
17:30
around great, amazing, but they're feeling stressed because of the safety environment and
17:34
people coming into the buses or doing just you know, dangerous things. So
17:38
to your both of your point, it causes people to be sick because they're
17:42
like so stressed out, and then of course that leads to other things,
17:47
right, Chronic stress will lead to other things, right, absolutely, you
17:52
know. But let's go back to some just resources and basic resources that small
17:57
business owners have. You know, it's funny before COVID, I focus heavily
18:02
on just employee benefits, and then I realized that there are a lot of
18:07
other resources out there besides benefits. But even let's go going to benefits.
18:11
When I talk to a lot of business owners, they want a lot of
18:15
them want to provide some type of medical insurance for their employees that they can't
18:18
afford it. But what blows me away is that I also bring in supplemental
18:23
insurance for them. And with supplemental insurance, they could give, you know,
18:27
provide an opportunity for their employees to get dental envision and other ways to
18:33
protect them financially. So that that, by the way, that's another stress.
18:37
I mean when you talk about wellness and stress, that identity theft is
18:42
another stress. If you at your identity stolen, it's like and you can't
18:48
how are you going to contact the proper uh, you know places while you're
18:52
at work and so you're sitting at work. So all of these these factors
18:56
play and when it comes to mental health the physical health. But I think
19:00
the one thing that shocks me about business owners is a lot of them are
19:04
just looking at the bottom line. They're looking at I mean, I as
19:07
a benefits counselor I'll actually go into a business and I meet these people once
19:12
a year, but they only want to give me ten fifteen minutes of paid
19:19
time to sit down with an employee for them to make decisions about their medical
19:26
benefits or their supplemental benefits or their life insurance or whatever. And I'm thinking
19:32
affect their entire life from here on out right right right. And yet you
19:37
know, it's like and I get it, and you know. This weekend,
19:38
I was in Oakland and I was at a preschool and where they have
19:42
a lot of kids, and they have teachers, and so the teachers can't
19:45
be away from the kids, and they have other teachers covering their shift.
19:49
Okay, I get that, but I've gone to places where maybe the business
19:55
owner feels that the employees don't appreciate the time that they get, and so
20:00
they've the owners become a little disgruntle as well as the employees become disgruntled.
20:03
And now it becomes like, well, why did I give them? Why
20:07
do I I'm not going to pay for them to sit there and talk to
20:08
you for about their benefits, even though it's once a year. And and
20:12
and I get, I can see both sides. I can see both spies.
20:15
But if I look at the bigger picture, and I realized that my
20:18
workforce is is I'm spending all this money investing in my workforce anyway, I
20:23
can't run my business without employees. And you know, how do I,
20:26
as the leader make the decisions to turn this around so that it becomes a
20:30
priority and my workforce understands that I have made them a priority. Uh?
20:36
I think that's where maybe then maybe we should be focusing on the owners because
20:41
they're the ones that have the leaderships, have the issues. You know,
20:45
But again you've got that vicious cycle of whereas the how do you balance that
20:48
out? So anyway. I want to. I want to because I think
20:52
this is important. This is a really important discussion because we're talking about building
20:56
a culture of you know, and then implementing this right, making sure that
21:00
we're doing it. And what you're way to hear you say, Stacy,
21:03
is if you don't have the business owner or at least speaking their language and
21:06
understanding put it in words of which they value and appreciate, they they're not
21:11
like, well, I don't it doesn't make sense to me and community and
21:15
Heather, I don't know if you' might to put you on the spot a
21:17
little bit, but I think it's important because we talked about leadership voices.
21:19
You're on that in the past. Stacy and powerality, and when we talk
21:23
to certain people, there's a little bit of finesse and understanding what motivates them,
21:27
what drives them, and so there's and so we have to look at
21:33
that because if I think, if you're coming from uh uh, and I'll
21:38
use the powerality tools because Heather does this, But if I'm more of a
21:41
protector and a nurture, somebody is like this. But you're trying to talk
21:45
to somebody that's a commander, head of the chief, you can't use the
21:48
same language. I think this is where we might run into progress sometimes,
21:51
right where you as a business resource specialist or you know the resources. You
21:56
know, Hey, you're watching after these people. You know what's going to
21:59
happen, but you're trying you talk to somebody. It's like almost a foreign
22:00
language, like they don't forget it. So, Heather, maybe if you
22:04
just put that hat on or something, because I feel like sometimes those people
22:08
in leadership positions just are not naturally not all of them, but many of
22:14
them don't have that nurturing kind of protectoring role of the people. So they
22:17
don't care. They've just got a lot of things on their mind and missions,
22:21
and that's a lot on their plate. And truthfully, that's one of
22:25
the that's one of the hard parts about being a small business owner or a
22:29
solopreneur is you're wearing literally all the hats, right, wearing all the hats.
22:34
But yeah, if you can kind of step back and understand a little
22:40
bit why you tick and understand why someone else ticks, you can accommodate better
22:44
conversation through that. Right, If you mentioned the protector and the commander,
22:49
Protector's going to seem super passive to a commander. That's not necessarily true.
22:56
That's the perception because they are polar opposites of each other. Right, And
23:00
so that's why I said earlier, liaison. You don't have to hire someone
23:06
to be there every day or all every week or long term, but liaison
23:11
come in and identify some of these things. Actually is very, very beneficial
23:17
because the liaison is going to know how to talk to preferably in my opinion,
23:21
one train them perorality going to know how to talk to and get the
23:25
most out of each individual in person. Right. And the thing is,
23:32
yeah, they're having a hard time making maybe they're having a hard time making
23:34
payroll, or they're having a hard time figure out how they're going to pay
23:38
for health care for their employees, like Stacy mentioned, much less a wellness
23:45
program. I mean, how that's just another thing on their plate. So
23:48
there's you know, we want to be creative in things we do that we
23:52
want them to understand they got required to create this huge, incredible program.
23:59
But what they do want to do is prioritize their wellness, their health,
24:03
and they want to live by example, and more importantly, they want to
24:08
make wellness options available, because just like health force someone to go to a
24:15
doctor, you can't force someone to take part in a wellness practice. But
24:19
that's where understanding your role as the owner or the manager or the CEO and
24:25
the company is just that business is as important as the businesses. The wellness
24:32
within that business is just as important. I agree, I agree. I
24:37
think that look in at some practical ways. It's funny. I told you
24:42
that a lot of times you have to monetize wellness programs for the business owner
24:47
to see the value. But there are programs that are offered that also monetize
24:52
wellness programs so that the employee will see the important And it's funny you think
24:57
it's your own health you have to monetize it. I mean, for me,
25:00
it's like I want to wake up just waking up healthy and feeling strong
25:03
and being able to do my job. It's enough. But you know there's
25:08
a But let me give you some some examples. You know, on the
25:14
supplemental One of the supplemental companies I work with is AFLAC, and some of
25:18
the plans have wellness benefits. Believe it or not, you can have a
25:22
cancer plan and get one hundred dollars per person on the policy just to go
25:26
get a cancer screening each year. So what do I do. I go
25:30
in there and I and I have to tell them, look, you got
25:33
this cancer policy. Well, first of all, men are just I'm gonna
25:37
be straight up. Men are horrible. They you have to almost smack them
25:41
before you get them to go see a doctor. But when you tell them,
25:47
look, just go get a cancer screening four hundred dollars. Then you
25:49
go get your beer. You can go. You know you dudes. But
25:55
it's funny. I have to do things like that. Look, this has
25:57
this this no listen, all you got to do is just go get there
26:00
and believe it or not, people will will do that because they want the
26:03
money. There's another program called Champlain and basically is if they have to to
26:11
I think, do a certain amount of hours uh wellness activity each week in
26:18
order to basically almost I don't want to say, be refunded. But what
26:23
the program does is allows them to take advantage of pre tax pre taxation so
26:29
that there's money more money on the in their paycheck. And all they have
26:32
to do is plead a certain number of activities each week in order for their
26:37
for them to see their patcheock growth a certain amount. And it's just funny
26:41
how we have to we have to introduce these types of programs just to monetize
26:47
health and wellness for the employees as well. So it works both ways.
26:51
But you know, but a lot of those programs, if it's going to
26:52
benefit the employee, is going to benefit the employer in a monetary way their
26:57
bottom line. My job is how do I go in there and show that
27:02
value. So when I talk to the business owner, I have to speak
27:04
the language of the business owner. And when I talk to the you know,
27:07
the employees, I've got to touch them in a way that they see
27:11
the benefit of participating in these wellness programs. So there are practical ways to
27:17
do that. I guess I'm trying to say it doesn't have to be absolutely
27:21
you know so well I think, yeah, I was gonna say. I
27:25
mean, and this is the beauty of why we have this whole podcast to
27:27
be honest with you. As folks are listening or commenting in, please leave
27:30
comments because we'll respond to them. But this is to prompt you to think
27:33
about it, like you said, Stacy, and maybe talk with Heather or
27:37
talk with Stacy, they give you ideas of ways. I almost hear you
27:41
saying like, kind of gamify it, Stacy, or you're trying, you
27:45
know, you just have to work out our human brains, how our behaviors
27:47
are, right, and we're motivated by We're motivated for different reasons, right,
27:52
And and I'll go back together to maybe you because again knowing and when
27:56
we talk about our leadership boys or our power ournality, knowing what motivates us
28:02
is different, right, Why would we be healthy? What is what is
28:06
that you know? So, Heather, I mean just going off what Stacy
28:08
would say, what would be some things that we could again, how do
28:11
we address this with these different interests if you will, because we can talk
28:15
about physical, mental, emotional, spiritual well being. There's lots of different
28:18
things that are motivating us, right right, Well, and again I think
28:23
the first thing and you hit the meadle on the head and even this is
28:26
what Stacey's doing. You gotta talk the language of the leader. You gotta
28:33
tell you, gotta you got to find that buy in with the business on
28:37
the first because they are the ones that are going to set the tone for
28:41
everything, right, and it's not just that their employees mental health, physical
28:47
health, emotional health matter, theirs does as well, right, you know,
28:52
there's theirs is just as important. And then when you talk about perality
28:56
in that realm, you know, if I were talking to calculator, calculators
29:02
gonna want all the deeds, right, They're gonna want all the facts,
29:03
all the deeds so they can make a very very informed, long drawn out,
29:11
process driven understanding of the plan. Right. A commander just wants you
29:17
to give him the facts, give it to him straight, and get to
29:19
the get to it right. So and an energizer, an energizer you're not
29:25
gonna have any problems with because they're gonna keep asking more and more and more
29:29
because they energize the whole conversation. And then the protector they're there to help
29:34
everybody, So their biggest thing would be you want to make sure they understand
29:38
that they can indeed help everybody without breaking the bank. That bottom line does
29:45
matter. The wellness of that leader, the wellness of that owner is part
29:49
of that bottom line is part of their wellness, is it not? Absolutely?
29:56
So? I think that's the biggest thing is, you know, you
30:00
need to understand what it is that you have to offer in the wellness game,
30:07
what it is that you're doing, and in this case we're talking specifically
30:10
wellness and business. Right, But so you need to go in with the
30:14
understanding that it's not just this person's employees that need wellness. It's not just
30:19
this person who owns the business who needs to figure out how to provide health
30:26
benefits. This is a holistic, all encompassing issue and situation and it starts
30:34
from the CEO down and in some cases you might even say such from the
30:40
bottom and goes up because we are as important as the smallest cog in our
30:45
system, and wellness, good health makes the difference in that, yes,
30:52
and identifying that, I mean, unfortunately, we've seen terrible tragedies because people
30:57
didn't pay attention to the health and wellness, especially mental wellness right where people
31:02
have unfortunately done very bad, terrible things coming into an organization because they felt
31:06
disconnected, mentally unstable, right, and we weren't paying right, And how
31:14
do you identify that unless you have some kind of open, real wellness program
31:19
going on? How would you know most some people who have mental illness don't
31:26
even know they have it, right, How would you know? How is
31:30
that environment? How are they going to go in and get and feel safe
31:33
and have the ability and have access to the wellness that they need for their
31:40
health, right, not the being the devil's advocate. But I think we
31:47
can't. We can't make my opinion is and whether whether you want it or
31:51
not, but the the employer can be one hundred responsible for the health and
31:56
wellness of the may can by the resources they can provide the environment. But
32:02
you know, like you say, well, how do we know that there's
32:05
mental illness or whatnot? You know what I'm saying there is most people don't
32:15
feel safe and even approaching mental illness within the workforce, most people don't feel
32:20
safe and mentioning it at all because of the shame that's associated with it.
32:25
My shame. I think I said earlier there should be no shame. But
32:30
I think I mentioned earlier it's really the employer's job to make these resources available,
32:37
have an into which they're available, right, But they but they have
32:43
the ability to lead from that standpoint to where they bring everybody on board.
32:50
A leader leads, right, yep. Absolutely, And you know what I
32:53
want to I want to elaborate on that. I had a friend and her
33:00
been had had a mental breakdown, had had a psychotic break and was What
33:07
was unusual about it was the reaction. And I don't want to say unusual
33:12
because I think a lot of people treat physical illness differently from mental illness.
33:19
And at the end they felt like, you know, the comment was if
33:25
it had been a heart attack or stroke, they would have treated him differently
33:30
than they would have because you know, he had a psychotic break and a
33:36
mental breakdown. But the way that they treated him was almost like it was
33:39
his fault that he should you know, if he can't hang then if he
33:44
can't deal with it, then he shouldn't be out there doing things. But
33:46
if it had been a heart attack or stroke, they would have had more
33:49
empathy and more care, more oh, you know, get well do And
33:52
it was just interesting to see hear how that played out, how they treated
33:58
the physical right. And so you're you're right when when there's that stigma in
34:02
the workforce of you know, when you treat mental illness like you know,
34:07
you need to get tough and tough it out, it's hard to have that
34:10
conversation. The other thing that makes it hard is the whole thing with HIPPA
34:15
and you can't just openly discuss, you know, the I'm an insurance agent,
34:20
so I can't go around talking about mental your mental illness or your wellness.
34:24
I have to keep it to America where I'm protecting the hippowrites and so.
34:29
But David, I think you had a comment about Yeah, I was
34:30
just gonna say, I mean, so that's important. I've never that's a
34:34
caveat because none none of us here are an HR specialists and all that stuff
34:37
too, So I'm not going to pretend to be that. But as you're
34:39
listening to this, I would say, is an individual reach out to Stacy
34:45
or Heather. I'm sure you guys would be happy to talk with an individual
34:47
and they can talk with you and making sure whatever they want with you,
34:52
and then you're can decide how that how that gets relayed. So what I
34:54
what I see as a as a business owner looking at this and work within
34:59
businesses in the past, what I see as both of you as great resources
35:02
in anyone in this field, is that, Okay, we all we in
35:07
business. We have all types of insurance, not just medicals insurance. We
35:09
have you know, cybersecurity insurance, we have you know, all kinds of
35:13
insurance. What I'm I'm thinking, this is just my frameworks. As you
35:16
guys both talk, is that having somebody come in, you're kind of like
35:20
in a quote unquote an insurance policy. You're coming in, I'm helping mitigate
35:22
risk with my team because you can ask those questions or present information right and
35:29
help address that. Like you said, Tyler, how do you know?
35:31
Well, I start talking about this at presenting this and somebody's like, man,
35:35
I feel like I've been that or I've seen that in somewhere I'm experiencing
35:37
up myself. How do I get help? Like, well, we'll find
35:42
out. We'll give you some resource to help you. But if you don't
35:44
know, you don't know. So investing in like you said, Stacey,
35:49
ten or fifteen minutes talking with an employee or blocking out some time you're like,
35:52
okay, yeah, there is some front end investment, but think about,
35:54
like you said, how we're mitigating risk over the long haul. And
35:59
this is the way investing and pouring into your employees and saying, hey,
36:01
you're important. I want to make sure you're healthy well mentally, physically,
36:07
emotionally, right, all of these things. I want you to be holistically
36:10
present, right, right. I like a holistically present, you guy,
36:22
holistically present. I look at that at all areas because here's the reality.
36:24
Because in my own coaching program we talk about body as part of that.
36:30
That's not my main focus, it's more business. But I look at it
36:32
like you said at the very beginning, Stacy, it's all affecting each other.
36:37
So if our mental body is off, we're not going to do that
36:40
well in business. Our relationships are probably going to suffer as well. Right.
36:44
And you know if your spiritual any form way or you may not be
36:47
just this disconnection. So I look at that holistically, meaning it's it's they're
36:52
tied together. You pull on one, it pulls on another. You guys
36:55
are just being able to zero in specifically on the body area, which I
36:59
think is great because if we do well there, it will show up in
37:01
other in our lives, right right right, And I like what Heather said,
37:07
it's the business owner's responsibility to make available resources and guess what, it
37:12
doesn't have to cost you anything. You just need to know who to connect
37:15
with and who to leverage in your business to bring in those resources. And
37:19
it's funny, it's just the small business owner. This is my message to
37:22
the small business owner slow down. I understand you've got to work in your
37:27
business, but you also have to work on your business, and part of
37:30
that is leveraging the time of experts that can come in and just bring in
37:35
those resources or provides you with that additional support so that you can run your
37:38
business and be profitable. That's my biggest wish is to help business owners get
37:44
out of their way to stretch their visions so they can they don't have a
37:46
limited mindset. There are a lot of resources out there, and just because
37:51
you you know, you think you have to pay for that, that's a
37:53
limiting mindset. So take advantage of what's out there and the people that are
37:58
reaching out to you to be that resource for you or to introduce you to
38:01
the resources. I would say, go for it and take advantage of it.
38:07
It's so so so important. I mean, and Heather, I want
38:10
your open but here because I remember a point years ago where I I had
38:15
an issue to dealing with a stressful situation and I didn't quite know where to
38:20
turn. So understanding you know myself better now thankfully I can do that.
38:25
But again, you know, I think this is part of wellness. And
38:30
I think this is the part where you and I cross over, Heather a
38:32
little bit with powerality is like understanding yourself to lead yourself well and then again
38:38
helping your team. So, Heather, this is again one of your gifts
38:43
I really believe, is that you're able to come in and help folks better
38:46
understand who they are and then and with that understanding, make sure that they're
38:51
taking the steps necessary to make sure that they're doing well, whether it's there
38:54
like like whether they where they literally physically work right, the people that they're
38:59
interacting with, getting them in the best spot right. I am, truthfully,
39:06
my my, my superpower is connecting people to their true selves, Okay,
39:13
And when they can connect to their true selves, the wellness practices will
39:17
come forth that they need to go on as I work with them, and
39:22
it can be in any realm of wellness. Wellness is everything, everything,
39:27
everything, But I think the comprehensive approach to wellness basically is a holistic acknowledgment
39:36
that every aspect of well being is directly influenced by our work and our overall
39:42
health of the business as well as our personal individual wellness practices. Bottom line,
39:49
when when employees thrive, businesses prosper. But that's just that's just reality.
39:55
But most people have a hard time steier. First of well, it's
40:00
not what they've ever heard before, stinking out of the box, and they've
40:05
got so much on their plate it's hard to think of adding one more thing.
40:09
Right, business is great, and it's also hard, absolutely, And
40:19
you know what, I I definitely feel like there's more to talk about this.
40:22
We're gonna we'll wrap it up tonight because I feel like, you know,
40:27
we're coming to the end of our recording time here tonight. But I
40:29
definitely think there's a lot more topics to cover here and help to talk to
40:34
Stacy and you some more. David, Yes, I know. So I'll
40:40
come back around Stacey and I want to come back to you Stacy first.
40:44
So just again final takeaways thoughts as we're you know, wrapping up this episode,
40:49
this this particular topic, but we're gonna come back to again. There's
40:52
a lot more to dig into, but just final takeaways from your your from
40:54
our time today. Takeaways is that I, as Heather said, is imperative
41:00
to make health and wellness a priority in your business because it's not only it
41:08
will not only affect you as the business owner, but affect your business overall,
41:15
and so look at the bigger picture and make it a priority. I
41:19
would say that's the biggest, loudest thing that we're saying is look, let's
41:22
make it a priority. Yes we can monetize it, yes we can,
41:27
we can do all those things to bring value. But unless you don't,
41:30
unless you make it a priority, it will never happen in your business.
41:35
That's yep. And you're here and you've got some resources to you know,
41:38
reach out to Stacey, Heather I have I can get you plugged into with
41:43
on either one of them as well. So you've got here's your here ladder
41:46
clear you have help. It's right here, Heather. Just your last were
41:51
so great number one having you on here, and we're looking forward to having
41:52
you back again. Thank you, David. It was absolutely absolutely The last
41:57
thoughts are takeaways that you want to share with us, listener. I just
42:00
kind of want to recap leaders lead and that means even in the wellness and
42:05
the health of their business, not just in their employees, but also in
42:09
themselves and the environment that they're cultivating. Right, and when employees are happy,
42:19
they're satisfied that trickles on to the customer, which then in turn creates
42:24
more business. Right, that cycle is there to tap into and wellness plays
42:31
a huge role in that. But like Stacey said, if you don't see
42:37
the importance of wellness, even for yourself as the business owner, you're not
42:43
going to be able to get that across to the other people. Absolutely,
42:46
leaders lead, when employees thrive, business prospers. Wellness is what you do.
42:52
Health is your result. Working on the business roads business. Working in
42:59
the business makes money and gets stuff done. We want to help together,
43:06
so thank you both for being on here. You guys, we love your
43:09
feedback, We love comments, liking and sharing all of this. Of course,
43:14
you know follow us on the Business Roundtable podcasts. We are on all
43:16
the different platforms. You can see us on YouTube as well, So if
43:20
you're listening to this and you want to see us in action, please join
43:22
join us on YouTube. There. Uh and again, I want to just
43:25
thank you so much Stacy and Heather for joining me tonight. Look forward to
43:30
the next one. Thanks all right, thanks so much. Thanke Care