Leading with Heart: Self-Awareness, Kindness, and the Strength of Vulnerable Leadership

0:14 The topics and opinions express in the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests and not those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability explicit or implies shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W FOURCY Radio. What's working on Purpose? Anyway? Each week we ponder the answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose at work, to contribute their talents passionately and know their lives really matter. They crave being part of an organization that inspires them and helps them grow into realizing their highest potential. Business can be such a force for good in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we all want working on Purpose. Now here's your host, doctor Elise Cortes.

1:19 Welcome back to a Working a Purpose program which has been brought to you with passion and price since February of twenty fifteen. If to meet it again this week, great to have you. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes. If we have not met before and you don't know me, I'm an organizational psychologist, local therapist, speaker and author. My team and I at Gusto now help companies to enliven and fortify their operations by building a culture or leadership activated by meaning and purpose. Our mission is to help our clients create a destination workplace where people flock to join, are intrinsically motivated to perform at their best, can grow to their fuller potential, and are committed to stay in an a good deliver on the company's mission, which translates to higher profits for you. You can learn more ab us and now we can work together at Gusto Dashaneau dot com my personal website at least coretest dot com.

2:03 Before we get into today's program, I am thrilled to announce that registration is now open for a fabulous new conference for women which I'll be serving as the MC. It's called Thrive in twenty five and it is jam packed a few days in Chicago. That's June twenty fifth through June twenty eighth, twenty twenty five, and it is designed to develop women as whole selves, from bolstering their mindset to financial acumen, to leadership, to incorporating nature and art into your life, to raise consciousness, and so much more. You can visit the website. It's thrive dash in twenty five dot com twenty five. The number thrive dash in twenty five dot com. Information into register, you can use my promo code Gusto all caps to gain access to some additional free books and programs that I will also gifting to registrants. See you there getting into today's program.

2:50 We have with us today Christy Pretzinger. She's the CEO of WG Content, a nationally recognized healthcare content consultancy. We'll be talking today about how she has built her company on the basis of a positive culture, with all employees working remotely. She's doing just today from Cincinnati, Ohio. Christy, welcome to working. On a purpose. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it at. Least so welcome. And I think it was through this conference. Was it at Hope Mealer that put us together? Yes, the master reminder of this ARRIVEE conference. So let's call that out as well. Wonderful to be on the other side of the mic with you. I wanted to just start with just the fun story, if we can, on Christie of how how it happened that she came to acquire what was then called writer Girl some twenty years ago?

3:36 How did that happen? I was actually a freelance writer and had been for quite a while at that time. This was back in two thousand and four three, I think it was, and the person who had founded writer Girl at the time was going on a maternity and even wanted me to run it for her while she did that. She had a high risk pregnancy. The company at the time was really just her and one writer, and they had pretty much one large client. At the time. She had not actively been building it as a big organization, and it was much more focused on kind of advertising copy naming things like that, so more short form copy. So I did that, and then about a year later, that one client was actually a subject to an FBI search and was then indicted for accounting fraud. And she was pregnant again and said she wanted out, and I said, okay, I will, I will buy you out. So I did, and then fast forward. I had been, as I said, a freelancer, so I had a lot of different clients around town. And a client was doing a very large content management system at the time. It's funny that I thought it was larger as the thousand pages that's nothing to us now. But they needed a group, a team of writers to work on that and to do it very quickly. I think they started out with eight weeks.

4:55 Then they cut it down to six weeks, and so we did that and it went really well, and that, oh, I'll bring teams of writers to big projects. And then fast forward, and another former client was a marketing director at a hospital system just north of Cincinnati, and she needed a team of writers to work on three hospital websites that were launching concurrently. So I didn't know anything about hospitals or anything at all. But within a week I had about thirty five writers on the project. And so we did that successfully. That one took a bit longer, and then when that was over, I told myself the necessary entrepreneurial lie that it will be easy to bring teams of writers to hospitals. So yeah, it wasn't easy.

5:41 Nobody in fact in Cincinnati would even talk to me. Can't be a profit in your own hometown. So I started going to different cities and getting clients. One of the first big clients was the Ohio State University, which is still one of our clients, and then it kind of went from there. So that was I think. I did buy her out in two thousand and four, and so I've been actively building it for about twenty years. How wonderful I love. It's such a there's serendipity in this, there's a blind leap of faith in this. There's oh yeah, I can do this, no problem. So maybe something of an accidental entrepreneur here, but it sounds like but how wonderful for lifeful to learn from that being inspired by that. And before that, you said you were a freelance writer. Why did you choose this field? Why aren't you an accountant, Why aren't you an architect?

6:32 Well, I was a French major in college, so there's limits to my knowledge. So what I learned when I graduated from school and then got my first job, which was in the incentive industry, incentive travel industry. At the time, I was doing just a little bit of writing, and then I moved to another company and became a writer there. And what I realized over time was that when you are fluent, which I was at the time, in another language, it helps make you more articulate in your first language. Yes. No, yeah, I was really easy to you know, it was easy for me to write, and I really started doing more long form content. That was always my area of comfort and expertise. I was never a short copywriter, headline kind of person. That just wasn't my forte. So when I had worked at a publishing company for almost five years and had a really good run there, but there were some circumstances things going on, and my dad had been self employed as an engineer, and so I always kind of thought that being self employed would be nice, and so I, as you mentioned, took the leap and became a freelance writer. And I always say that when you jump out to do something like that, it's like jumping off a cliff and trusting that you have wings. And so I did that, and I did that for really ten years before I ended up taking over writer role, and then we changed the name just this past April.

7:52 We'd looked at it many times as changing it, but we had that brand has such equity within the marketplace that we were hesitant to do it. But then we realize now is the time. We're a much larger organization certainly than we were back then. And also we do a lot of strategy as well as content creation, so that we really and there's a lot of us. We're right, a girl. It's really easy to think it's one person, which obviously it's not. So that's how we landed with the content strategy and creation. Okay, fantastic, fantastic, And do I have it right that you are still focused on just healthcare and hospitals. Yes, yeah, largely. Really big hospital systems tend to be our larger clients, and then also agencies and businesses that serve those large clients. By the way, there's not very many small hospitals anymore. They've been kind of gone by the wayside, gobbled up.

8:40 I remember when we first met and we talked about having you come on my podcast. I recall you saying something about why what it was about the healthcare and hospitals, why that was such a good fit for you, and why it was important for you to serve that particular segment. Yeah, it was funny, you know, luck is preparation meeting opportunity, and this was not a key thing actually, But right about as I started building it and really focusing on healthcare, both of my parents were diagnosed with cancer within a month of each other. And I realized at the time, because we were just kind of getting into healthcare, we weren't fully into it yet exclusively, and I realized that there is so much information out there that's just not accurate, and it's very easy and as you know, even more so now, we are just inundated with information, and especially back at the time this would have been about two thousand and eight or so, that people just didn't even know where to go to get accurate information. And it was kind of happening at the time when we moved in this area that a lot of hospitals were emerging they were doing complete website overhauls, So we kind of jumped in right at the right time when they needed content help, and there wasn't anybody else doing it at the time. Now there's quite a few. But when I started doing it, we actually created a new category. And again I didn't even know that until in retrospect, when I realized it was a new category. Because I had to explain what we were doing by telling them what we were not so that they could understand it. And so so yeah, that's kind of the origin story. Yeah,

10:12 and I appreciate that. And I think you also mentioned something about just having a heart for people who are trying to find information at a time when it's they're not they don't feel good there, right, They're in dire straits oftentimes, and to try to make it make it easier for them too. No one's looking for health converse, I mean health content from a hospital, you know, surgical things diagnosed, these things like that, because they're in a good place now. Of course, there's a whole different area which we also write about for hospitals largely is wellness and things like that. That's different. But yeah, and it was really largely because of what I was going through and really being able to empathize with with you know, what a loved one is ill. You really want to be able to make good health care decisions, and you need to get good information in order to be able to do that.

10:55 Yeah, yeah, I really, I really of course, you know the purpose girl in me is that just makes my heart saying of course, so I'm right. And so thank you. And now, of course I would be remiss if I didn't if I let you come finish off this interview and go off air without us talking about the fact that you are, if I have this right, a purely remote or remotely run organization. You don't have an office in which people come to go. To work, correct? We have always been that way? Yeah? And what was behind that? Why? Why not? Because you are a weirdo, you know in today's world, I know to be to be blunt. I didn't want an office because I didn't want to have to go there. I loved being a freelancer and you know, working in casual clothes and working in my home, and I always felt the integration of my life and my work, and I wanted to continue doing that. And then as the organization grew, I really wanted to offer that to employees too, so that they knew that, you know, if you want to throw on a load of wash, if you need to take your dog for a quick walk, that you are you have an agency over your own time. And you definitely have more agency when you are in your own home or wherever you choose to go. A lot of people will cowork, you know, the ones who are in the same city will go meet at a coffee shop or something and do things like that. So there are ways of building community without necessarily having an office and a water cooler.

12:15 Really really, really really applawed this, Christie. My first book came out in twenty twenty. It's called Purpose Ignited. And of course, you know, we were full swing in the pandemic when that happened. And part of what I wrote in that book that I was so cognizant to so present to as a social scientist as well, is how people had their this moment to kind of take stock of their lives. How do they want to work, how do they want to connect, how they want to be with their families. And I say, I remember witnessing in my front big windows what I call moving caravans and reconnection. And so it was people from from my neighborhood. You know that the adults strolling along sipping on something, and the children, you know, merely coming along with them on their tricycles or bicycles or skateboards or whatever. And the pet's merely coming along as well. And I thought, nobody's going to want to give this up right, and so well, I really really appreciated, applaud that you have made this a mainstay. It started with what you wanted, but then now you extend this to the people that work with you, and I am so just amazed how these companies are now requiring a mandate return to office five days a week or you're out kind of things.

13:24 I know, I think that's in my experience, I would think that would be a very large mistake. People don't like giving up freedom right right, and and so you know, I liked what you said before you said work life integration. I like the phrase work life harmony, where you know you can make a harmonious connection between the elements of your life. So I just really want to applaud that. And then let me let me go one step further, Christy on that you've clearly, you know, created a very successful organization operating. The way that you do. I would venture you do need to be a bit more proactive at least in your your your communittion or how you connect with people to keep that the culture alive, working operating. So can you just give us a couple of tips or what are you doing to really make your remote culture work.

14:12 You know, it's grown up over the years. And what I always say now is that you know, I cast the vision for the culture, but the employees live it out and if they didn't, it wouldn't be this amazing culture. And so with their own impetus. There are several like small groups. There's a book club and they meet virtually in a zoom meeting and I think they do it over lunch. We also have something called Kindness Counts where we get in person the people who are in town in person go and do community service in various places so that we have things that we do together as a group. We have a monthly all hands meeting and in that meeting, prior to the meeting, our HR coordinator will ask, will tell everyone the value this month that we're going to talk about or recognize is empowered because we are empowered, curious, kind, and fun, And we ask people how they have demonstrated empower empowered and not how have they felt empowered because that's that's switched in the brand, And how did you act kind? How did you have fun or create fun? So we'll she'll pick one of the values and they just kind of go through them and then people. She solicits nominations for someone to win.

15:17 We call it the Wuhu Cup, but for someone to win that award at the meeting, and whoever submits a submission, they write a little reason why they've nominated this person as someone who has demonstrated empowerment or fund or curiosity, whatever happens to be. And so that way it accomplishes several things. First of all, employees get to give each other kudos and recognize each other. It keeps the values top of mind, and it makes it's a fun way to end the meeting. We always end the meeting with that, and you know, it's a little presentation and all the thing, and then the award they get it. We used to have a cup that we had to figure out how to get around to people, but I think one of the employee's daughters decided she really liked it and kept did so she has just a toy. And then we started getting Haley, the HR coordinator started getting some sort of small reward that would correspond with what the value was.

16:11 How lovely, I really appreciate that. I do want to talk more about your culture here, but let's take our first break. I'm your host doctor Elise Cortes. We've been on the air with Christine Pretzinger. She's the CEO of WG Content, the nationally recognized health care content consultancy. We've been talking a bit about how she got her got herself into that business and now how she's been growing it. After your break, you're going to hear more about how she keeps it alive and thriving. We'll be right back. Doctor Elise Cortez is a management consultant specializing in meaning and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author, she helps companies visioneer for a greater purpose stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite a lease to speak to your organization, please visit her at elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to Alise A Lisee at elisecortes dot com. Now back to working on Purpose.

17:42 Thanks for stating with us and welcome back to Working on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes As I am dedicated to help and create a world where people realize your potential. At work are led by inspirational leaders that help them find and contribute their greatness, and we do business that betters the world. I keep researching and writing my own books, so my last one came out in March of twenty twenty three. It's called The Great Vitalization. How activating meaning and purpose can radically in liven your business. And I've wanted to help leaders understand kind of what. Christ and I've been talking about. What do people want today from the workplace and what do they how can they be motivated to give their best? And then I offer twenty two best practices to help you build that into your culture to create that for them. You can find my books on Amazon, and you can see more about them on my website Gustodashow dot com.

18:26 If you are just now joining us. My guest is Christi Pretzinger, who is about to release a book at Chico author called Your Cultural Balance Sheet, Keys to Creating an Environment where people can thrive. I can't wait to read that. I'm sure we will be very aligned up on that, Christie. So where I want to go next, and you already you've already qued it up. For us here. But I do know in both our first conversation and of course it's all over your website, that you have really built your business on the platform of kindness. Why is kindness so important to you and how are you actually living that in your business? I love that question, Alie. Thank you for asking it, because the first time it was asked of me it was a little while back, and no one had ever asked me that before. I think about it. And actually the follow up question that that gentleman asked was did you work for unkind people? I said, I think about it, and I was like, you know, no, I did not work for unkind people, but I realized that the structures within which they worked did not foster kindness. And so again in retrospect, I can look and see the impact that that has had on the structure of WG content, how we've actually built it and the things that we do.

19:37 To your previous question about how do you create a culture virtually, is that we engineer the structure to allow for the magic of the weaving of the tapestry. So we have a pod structure, as some businesses do. So we have pods, but then we also engineer it so that there are meetings between similar roles across pods, so that they're not siloed, so that they can can share information and find out if they're working on parallel projects, that they can share different tips about how something has worked or not worked for them, you know, things like that. So, yeah, that did that into your question. You know, let's hoek a little bit deeper, though, what does kindness mean to you?

20:18 You know, it's it's it's nuanced, do isn't it. There's a lot a lot to it. I think a lot of it is kind of what you led with. And I know you've said this in speaking also in your introduction about people need to know that they matter. And I believe that to the core of my being, that that is a common human need and it doesn't matter whether it's work, family, friends, whatever, people need to know that they matter. And so that's always been important to me. And I think in terms of the kindness piece, again didn't work for unkind people, but I think it just is kind of who I am, and I am always seeking ways to be kind, you know, buying lunch for someone standing behind you in line and not telling them that you've done it, you know, those little kinds of things.

21:02 It's somebody I've heard somebody once say it's like the helpers high. Being kind makes you feel good about yourself, you know, boos your self esteem. So it's kind of a win win. So when as the business grew, I had said, if I couldn't build a business based on kindness, I would go back to being a freelance writer. But again, as you know, when you start building a business, you're wearing all the hats. You know, you're selling, you're operating, you're doing accounting, you're doing all the things. So while that was my intention, I didn't think about it a whole lot. The business based on kindness is really about the fact of who I am and the way I want to live my life. And I was always someone who sought out ways to be coming. And I think that the people as they were joining the organization, as we were building it, they vibed with that, they liked that, and then as a result, especially at the very beginning, but it still happens now, employees would refer people they had worked with before, or friends that were appropriate for you know, a certain position, things like that, and so we've grown very much by that. So there's a lot of like mindedness in it.

22:03 And that's one of the great things about culture, as you know, right, is that when we really live our purpose of values, people either opt ended up because they like it. It resonates with them where they say no thanks to want any of that kind of thing. I'll go down where you know people are direct and short and terists or whatever. Yeah, people those are my jam. Right, Okay, So let's talk about your other three values as well, and I'd love for you to bring them to life because I just I think one of the things I love to do when I'm working with organizations and leaders is to help them discover or find additional ways they can really live and reward their values among their teams. So one of one which really really aligns with mind. In fact, it is one of my values as well, and that's empowered or empowerment. Well, first, first, what does that mean to you and why is it important?

22:53 You know, empowerment is for me, a lot of it is about agency over your own behavior, your own action, is your own thoughts all of those things. And the tag that we have for is we think like owners, so that people are empowered to make decisions. They don't need to run something every little thing by someone. If they have a question about something or of the authority that they have in a certain situation, obviously they can ask on that. But you know, I recognize very fully and I say this frequently in our team meetings, and I have small meetings with the different groups as well, and I say that you know you wouldn't be here if you weren't extremely intelligent and capable and competent. So you are empowered to use your considerable talents in the way that you deem appropriate. I trust you to do that, so that that sort of encapsulates empowerment for me.

23:46 And then how do you champion that in your organization? Besides, of course, you know those one went conversations and I would imagine that you know that living in a day to day basis, But how do you champion that and ensure that it's actually being lived in your organization? As I mentioned earlier, we do recognize a value in every team meeting, which is once a month, so that helps keep them top of mind. But not only that. We have a week newsletter excuse me, that comes out every two weeks in internal. It's called the WG Roundup, and again people are asked to you know, it's really just internal what's happening with people, because we're not in an office whose kid is going to college or won an award, or you're going on vacation whatever. It's all those personal things. And we also have a section in that newsletter that is for kudos employee to employee, and it's really interesting because probably almost fully half of that newsletter is people giving each other kudos around these values.

24:36 So again it does keep it top of mind, and it's really it's lovely to see how people live these out. Every single person. If you ask them what the values are, they would tell you, oh, we're empowered, curious, kind and fun. And they would say, what's your mission, Oh, building relationships one word at a time. Everybody knows that, there's no question about it. We talk about it frequently. Like I said, it's in our newsletter. Again, engineer the processes and structure to allow for the weaving of the magic of the culture. And so that's how we keep those top of mind. Sounds good to me. Do you have any openings? I think you're doing just fine on your own. Okay, okay, okay. I've said that. I was without speaking to a group of Fidelity investments some months ago and I said that in one of the people in the audience said, I think you should stay doing what you're doing.

25:23 Yeah, okay, well let's talk about curious. That also is a fantastic value and not one of my top ten, but I like it. Yeah, it's curiosity is probably again we did this. This was a group effort. It wasn't just me coming up with values, which, by the way, in my own experience, I highly recommend doing it that way because then you get buy in from the people. Because if this was many years ago, so not nearly as many people, but you're buy in from people like this is how we define ourselves. This is who we are as a people. So when it comes to curiosity, there's a lot around curiosity. We're curious about each other personally. We're curious about the work that we do, and actually curious about our clients personally as well as the project that we're working on.

26:05 We're curious about challenges or opportunities they have within their organization that we might be able to that we should know about if there's a certain sandbox issue that comes into play. We like knowing about that because it helps us understand where they're coming from and what our role can be to help that. And also we're curious about new things. Everybody's always curious. AI obviously is all over the place since chat GBT came out. Everybody thinks that chat GBT that is the only aid there is and that it's writing, which we all know is actually more than that. We've been using AI for years in many things, but the writing element is a tool, is a piece of it. So we have an AI champion. She's actually our digital Director of Digital Activity, but she's our AI Champion, and their teams within the organization put together to look into how to use it more effectively as a tool, What different kinds of things can we do. We're curious about the effect that might have on our business and the world going forward. I find curiosity is a good way to stave off fear as well. You become curious and you get more information. Fear often stems from a lack of knowledge, you know, a fear of something you don't really the unknown, right, so if you learn more about it, it helps stave off that fear too.

27:20 I love the idea of just you know, cultivating curiosity everywhere you go and rewarding it and just you know, I just I got the image of you, you know, as an organization, just all of these little, you know, curious people that are peering around and just it's a workful image just to like, thanks, you're welcome. You're welcome. Then, of course, related to that for me, of course, is the last value. Fun. We're fantastic value to have. Yeah, well we try to have fun and we do a lot of fun things. One time, it was my birthday and we were having we're having a Zoom meeting, and everybody came on and nobody had their cameras on, and that's not part of our culture. So I was like, well, that's weird. So I turned mine off too. I'm like, why I used to bring up their cameras off. Well, then it come to find out they all turned their cameras on at the same time, and they all had like I think they might have had hats on or something, and like signs that said happy birthday and all that kind of stuff just I mean, that's not a big deal, but it was fun. It was a fun surprise for me.

28:14 And they'll do things like that frequently on our team meetings, like on Halloween we had wonder most people came in some sort of costume. They'll frequently do little coworking, even if it's just online co work together because then you've got somebody that you feel like you're in the same room with someone. And also it's a way to build relationships but also ask questions in the curiosity, but also be like, hey, I'm doing this thing here. Do any of you guys have a shortcut or a way that you do it that's better than what I do? And that's curious. But it's also fun to learn some and be like, oh wow, I can't believe I didn't know how to do that. So we try and weave it into everything that we do, because while you know, work is sometimes difficult, especially with our clients, we really try to make it enjoyable and fun. And in the different surveys that we do of our clients, one of the things that comes up besides that, I mean, there are other people, as I said, that do what we do now and they do it fine, they do it well.

29:10 I still think we're the gold standard, but they do it well. But why people choose us, They frequently say, it's because we really enjoy working with the people. You know, it's not transactional, and we're not someone who comes in and tells them you're doing everything wrong. Here's what you got to do. We very much meet them where they are and help them get where they need to go. Delightful. Sounds good to me. And then one of the things that we talked about when we first met that you can't again leave without talking about, and that is your I would say, fixation on the role of self awareness in leadership. So where did that come from? Why is that on your radar? Let's start there, and why is self awareness so important? Yeah, it is a fixation. I appreciate you saying that, because it is. It became so as you know, as you get older, you develop wisdom, but as you're on the way, you start realizing seeing you have some gaps.

30:01 I started studying the enneagram, which is you're probably familiar with, but FUS personality typing program that the reason I am so attracted to is because it looks at motivation as opposed to behavior, because behaviors can look similar, but why we behave the way we do. So when I started learning about my Enneagram type, of course it was a big part of it. I was like, oh, yak, which is how you know it's actually your type? And I started learning about you know, as an adult, I can moderate my behavior. There are behaviors that are that are innate to me that can be terribly off putting, particularly as a leader. So I started really working with that. And at the same time, I was working with a coach and she had said to me at one point the company was still called Writer Girl, and she had said, writer Girl is you, and you are a writer Girl, and it won't grow until you do. That was a bound to me. And what I started doing is I started a daily meditation practice and I started reading even more books. But I didn't just read business books. I read some business books, but my focus really was on personal development with an emphasis on self awareness. So I did a lot of that kind of reading, a lot of digging. I ended up going to therapy for a while too, which if you have access to it, it's the hardest work you'll ever do and the best work you'll ever do. And so through all of that, you know, really kind of unpacking who I am and what has formed me. And also with the anagram, with the any gram, I think that because there are a sensibly only nine types,

31:33 there's a lot more than that goes into it. But essensibly there's nine types. But when you learn about your own and you also can learn about the other ones, that that leaves the groundwork for radical empathy. And empathy is definitely part of self awareness. It's being able to literally put yourself in someone else's shoes and understand, you know, the ground on which they stand compared to that of your own. I find, you know, I always thought it was Girto, but I think of somebody else who said the unexamined life is not worth living. It might have been Amazon, I'm not sure, but in any case, it's one of my favorite quotes because I think that the ongoing development of self awareness is the work of a life. I mean, it's never done. Keep digging deeper and learning more about yourself and seeing things. I mean, in very recent memory, I have had many things that I've learned about myself and like, oh wow, that's interesting. You know how it's very easy to get in your own viewpoint of something and miss what is right in front of you, right and totally miss it, and it was right there the whole time. So you know something, you just keep learning.

32:36 And I think that when you become more self aware, you become a better person, and you become a better employee, but you just become a better friend, a better human being. And that's really what my mission really is, which kind of aligns with yours, which is reinventing the way people look at the world of work, and that has to start with the human beings. They have to be better humans in order to make the world of work a more joyful place. Completely agree, and I'm going to pepper back just after we come back from our last break here because I have more to drill on that probably we can make a whole show just out of that one topic. I'm your host, Doctornlie's Cortez. We've run here with Christi Pretzinger. She's the CEO of WG Content, a nationally recognized healthcare content consultancy. We've been talking a bit about the importance of how she lives her company values. After the break, we're going to dig a little bit deeper into what we were just talking about the self awareness piece, but also talk about why focusing only on the bottom line is apparent thinking.

33:32 We'll be right back. Doctor Elise Cortez is a management consultant specializing in meaning and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author. She helps companies visioneer for a greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite a lease to speed to your organization, please visit her at elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to a lease a lisee at elisecortes dot com. Now back to working on Purpose.

34:40 Thank you for staying with us, and welcome back to working on Purpose. I'm your host, Doctor release Cortes. I mentioned in the last break that my last book came out in March twenty three, called a Great Vitalization. What I did for you is I created a three page assessment that you've been download from my website customdationnel dot com and you will help you entertain the extent to which your current culture is meeting the needs of today's discerning workforce. If you are just now joining us. My guest is Christy Pretzinger, who is about to release a book she co author called Your Cultural Balance Sheet, Keys to Creating an Environment where people can thrive. So back to what we were saying before the break, starting with the idea of the role and the importance of self awareness and leadership and certainly in life to be a better human. I recently had in my podcast someone that I think you would probably really be interested in. His name is doctor Josi Amren, and he is all about developing spiritually intelligent leaders. And of course what he means by that and that aligance with my work also is developing leaders who are compassionate, who are kind, who are passionate, who are focused on purpose and goodness, and you know, so many things that are that higher level that most of the you know, the ancient traditions or faith would recognize as being ideals. And I love that, I love champion that I'm trying to do the same thing for myself, and I do think that makes us better leaders.

35:55 So I just wanted to celebrate. What you're doing there and that why that you know that your fixation on that is just I think so such a healthy fixation. Yes, and it is a fixation, And in fact, I love what you just said with that, gentleman. I haven't had a chance to listen to that one, but I will for sure. I also am a fan of Ryan Holliday, who is the Stoic, the guy who writes all of the daily Stoic and ego is you know, the but I said, the ego is the obstacle obsolet anyway, he's great if anybody hasn't read him. But it's very much the same thing. There's virtues, you know that that we are called we are we have a duty to be good. We have a duty to do what is right and to your point, kind and compassionate and not really selfless, because I think that can be problematic and can create all sorts of side issues like codependency and things like that.

36:46 But being being really really aware of the needs of others, and that you don't have main character syndrome, you know where you're the most important person in every room. I love that. I've never heard that before. Christy. That is eminitely quotable. Thank you. Okay, well, well. Related to this, as if everything else we've been talking about hasn't already been yummy, now we're getting we have dad. One more other really interesting bit to the fold, and that's this notion of vulnerability that's also really important to you. Why. Yeah, you know, back in twenty ten, when Brene Brown did her talk on vulnerability, I would have gone to my grave insisting that vulnerability was weakness. I mean, I just didn't know any better. I mean ten years ago, I had no idea. And you know, I always say nobody gets out of childhood without bruises, and so the ones that I had were things that you don't really show people your vulnerability because it felt like weakness and they'll use it against you. So I was like, no, I am not down for that. So then I listened.

37:45 At the time, I was listening to a lot of Ted talks, and I came across her as I think, by accident, probably everybody in the world was watching it at the time, and I think I watched it at least ten times. I was so taken in by the whole idea of that, and I think she's such a brilliant speaker and is so relatable, and it really, I really could relate to it, and I started reading more about it. I started reading everything that Brene has written had written at the time, and continued and started really looking at that and trying to understand why I was so resistant to vulnerability. And you know, over time, I've come to realize that that most humans are resistant to vulnerability. It's not a natural inclination to want to expose your foils to other people. It's much more of an inclination to protect yourself and act like everything's great, which you know it never is for anybody, but so for me.

38:39 As I learned to be more vulnerable, I realized that by leading with vulnerability, it encourages others to be vulnerable back. And it is in furtherance of our mission of building relationships one word at a time. I want authentic, real relationships. I don't want ones based like I call Facebook fake book. You know, I don't want that of relationship. And I want people to be as vulnerable as they feel comfortable being. They don't have to open their comment and show people everything, but I want to lead with vulnerability, so people know this is a safe space and you are allowed to make mistakes and you're allowed to have faults, things that you know, you know you're working on just like everybody else is. But just again the commonality of the human experience where no one is perfect, and as the leader in particular, being willing to demonstrate that actively.

39:30 Really applaud that. I have one coaching client that I've been working with for years. She's an executive, and she has this mantra she oftentimes when she's working with people, and she worked in the Laurie Building is safel thousands of employees around the world, and she will oftentimes when she's connected with them, she'll say, this is me being vulnerable, and then she will go and share what's really on her. And she's doing that just in the same way to model it and to showcase it. And you know, it has been delightful to watch her just over the I think seven years we've been working together, her career is just, you know, really really taken off. And I think that's part of it. I would agree, and I think to your point that people on my leadership team, well, the whole organization uses the enneagram. They're all typed before they join, and they get a book and they have we've lunch and learns and things like that around it. And the ones who are closer to me, the leadership team. It has been so interesting over the years my CEO has been with us for twelve years and watching her do the work, working individually with an enneagram coach and now with the business coach and watching her and she's one of the ones who will all say, this is me being vulnerable, you know, And I see her demonstrate that, certainly to me, but also to the people that report terming. She runs the whole thing day to day, and it has been one of my greatest honors actually to watch her grow and change that way because she did the work. I just provided access, but she did the work, and that is a real joy to see. It is now I really can't resist. Would you?

41:03 Are you comfortable sharing what your type is for your integrams? Of course, I'm a seven on the enneagram parts, Hi says me too. Yeah, hard right, It's like, oh gosh, all those things where I can just be too directive and move too fast and talk too fast and yeah, all the things that you know. The gluttony is the problem, and it's a gluttony with knowledge with things sometimes and recognizing those things. But the great part is that if I again I have to reframe because I'm a seven, everything's got to be okay. So the good thing about knowing those things is that I can fix them, you know, I can. I can moderate those But if I didn't know I was doing that, I'd be walking around offending my my team all the time, right, and that would be so bad, so many reasons.

41:54 One of the things I like about the integram is you know the nine levels, and so when you get in those higher levels, some more healthy behaviors, healthy ways of being, you can better moderate those things. So anyway, just was very curious, because you've now mentioned it twice. I'm going in, yeah, all right, all right, now, I really this is just an irresistible question. And what was again it came up in our first exchange, this notion that you have of of how what it is to just focus on the bottom line, which for you is aberrant thinking. Help us understand why. Yeah, you know it's funny and you might experience the same thing with your sevenness, But I sometimes I'm such a verbal processor that sometimes I don't know what I think until I say it, Like it occurs to me, I'm like, oh, that's the title of the book. Came up because I just happened to say, you know, I look at my business through the lens of a cultural balance. And I was like, oh, well, that's the title of the book. And the same thing with the aberin thinking. I was in a small group meeting with some employees I do from time to time.

42:51 We don't have that many people that I can't meet with them and just talk about the world of the book, whatever work is going on. So we were talking one day and I was talking about the book and I said, you know, it occurs to me that looking at your business only through the lens of the bottom line is actually aberin thinking, because we're talking about our culture. And I said, I'm a firm believer and in my own experience, I know it to be true that people are wired, hardwired to connect. We're hardwired for relationship. That is who we are as human beings. And if you look at your business and devoid of that piece and only at the bottom line, certainly you can be very successful. You know, two unpleasant people in my opinion, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos come to mind. They've done brilliantly with their businesses, and I don't think either of them give a wit about any of their people. So clearly you can have a successful business by looking at the bottom line. But for me it doesn't bring joy. I mean, my humanity is tied into this business, my life, get it. Yeah, and it's so I want there. Yes, we need to make money. Yes, we are a for profit organization. We need to make money so that I can continue to give people raises that we can grow, so we have career pathing for the employees that we do have. But my driver for the growth and for more money is not about buying more shoes, and it's certainly not about power.

44:13 I think that those are okay, this is just my own experience. I think people that focus on their money probably could benefit from a good therapist, because there's a lot of things that they're not maybe looking at. You're right, you, my dear, I'm sure probably know this or maybe already embrace it. You're a conscious capitalist. Yes, yes, I am very much. I am the embodiment of that, and I think it's kind of a shame that we don't use that in the real world anymore. Because I always like when I talk to people about anything, and if I'm sounding liberal about sorry, I may I remind you that I own a business, so I'm by definition of capitalists, and I anybody else here, you know own a business usually like no, I'm like, okay, so my definition, I'm the capitalist here, you know. But I think that I think, as you say in your introduction and in your commercial set, you know, business can be a tool for wonderful things. You know, we spend so much time at work, why not use it?

45:08 And I used to always say that, yes, we are a for profit business, But what's really happening here is we are all rubbing up against each other and other people, and we are smoothing the rough edges of our personalities, because that's what you're actually doing. It's like two stones in the stone polisher, you know, we're polishing each other's sharp edges. It's such a great way to talk about it, Christy. I love that we're so close to. Being out of time that maybe, just within a minute, would you just tell us about your upcoming book, your cultural balance sheet, and when is it coming out. It's coming out in January, and I will certainly send you a copy, and I'm going to begin use your book as well. I wish I would write it before I wrote mine, because I'm sure there'd be interesting information, but in any case, it's called your cultural balance sheet, Keys to creating an environment where people can thrive. And the whole idea emerged out of a dinner conversation with some fellow entrepreneurs and a couple of them had had successful eggs. It's meaning one had sold to a publicly traded company, another one had sold to VC or something.

46:05 I'm not sure, I don't remember, but we were talking about it, and that's when I said, you know, I definitely look at my financials, but it's almost like I look at my business through the lens of a cultural balance sheet. And so one of my friends who had been after me to write a book, was like, well, there's your book. So I was like, okay, well I can do that. So then I was trying to see if I could make that analogy even work, and through some help with people I went to I went overseas to the UK to go to something called Global Speakers Academy, which is a program offered through the Entrepreneurs Organization, which anybody who's an entrepreneur here we don't have time, but definitely look up EO Entrepreneurs Organization, Global Organization and like, I don't know, seventy countries, twenty thousand numbers, something like that. Anyway, so it's a wonderful organization. So I went to Global Speakers Academy and they had these wonderful guys from Canada called Speaker Labs, and they came in and I was they were helping each of us craft to signature talk and I was trying to talk and I was like, I don't even know if this analogy works. And thanks to their brilliant coaching, they really helped me flesh it out, which then allowed it to become the foundation of the book.

47:09 So we talk about you know, cultural assets, cultural liabilities, and cultural equity, and just to give away the secret, your assets, of course are your people. There's many other ones. Your liabilities are all sorts of various things. But the thing about cultural liabilities is if you have both intention and attention toward those liabilities, you can turn them into assets. So, for example, if you're too rigid and you're aware of that, and you can allow yourself to develop more flexibility. That flexibility in turn can become an asset. And then the cultural equity is actually the culture itself that you have built by you know, your assets minus your liabilities, or turning your liabilities into assets. So that's in a nutshell kind of I think, and it's key sort of like you said, you have twenty two tips or things for people to do. These are keys that are actionable because of you know, we all have the attention span ofm in that, so we tried to keep them shorter and an actionable so that people could walk away from each one like, Okay, what can I do to take action on this particular thing.

48:13 It sounds amazing. I look forward to reading it. I want to thank you for coming on to Working the Purpose. It has really been a delight to connect with you well. I have loved being on your show and I'm really looking forward to listening to that. When you just told me about I love listening to like minded people and meeting like minded people like yourself, I think you'll love it. So listeners and viewers, you are going to want to learn more about Christy Prejinger and the work she and r team are doing at WG Content, as well as her forthcoming book, Your Cultural Balance Sheet, So visit her website. It's wgcontent dot com, so WG and then just the word content dot com. Last week, we missed the live show. You can always catch it be a recorded podcast or wherever you get your podcast. We were on air with Eric Gee talking about his book The Power of Personality, Unlock the Seecrets to understand everyone in your life, including yourself.

48:58 It was a fabulous conversation where he explained the forming types of personalities gatherers, hunters, Shamans, and smith's and what they most value, introducing the means to understand people we work with in Care About See you next week for another educationally nourishing and inspiring episode. And remember, work is one of the best adventures and means of realizing our potential and making the impact we create. So let's work on Purpose. We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to tune into Working on Purpose featuring your host, doctor Elise Cortes, each week on W four C. Why Together, We'll create a world where business operates conscientiously leadership inspires and passion performance and employees are fulfilled in work that provides the meaning and purpose they crave. We'll see you there. Let's work on purpose.