Listen and Donate The EMPWR FUND here to help your host and Mental Health Ambassador, Ally Salama provide adequate mental health resources for Youth in his home nation, Egypt. (In partnership with El Neya Charity)-Maria Ross is the founder of brand consultancy Red Slice. She believes cash flow, creativity and compassion are not mutually exclusive. She advises entrepreneurs, startups, and fast growth businesses on how to stand out, attract the right customers, and accelerate revenue. Maria is the author of multiple books, including her latest The Empathy Edge: Harnessing the Value of Compassion as an Engine for Success and Branding Basics for Small Business.She has spoken to audiences ranging from The New York Times to BlogHer and has been featured in and written for numerous media outlets, including MSNBC, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneur.com, NPR, Huffington Post and Forbes.com. -Key Timestamps:[3:00] Maria’s journey as a story teller.[4:15] From Working in Marketing to Becoming a Brand Strategist. [6:00] Maria’s “Empathy Exploration”.[11:00] Looking at the Empathy Gap in Our Society[15:00] What is the “Empathy Edge”.[20:00] Misconceptions of What “Empathy” Means.[23:00] Maria’s Brain Injury Story & Recovery.[25:00] Lessons Learned to Gaining Self-Compassion & Strength.[30:00] How Empathy and Cashflow / Wealth Cross Roads.[38:00] Empathy and Harnessing the Power of Diversity.-💭Follow us @empathyalwayswins to share your thoughts with us on Instagram.⚡️Join Now our Youth Changemaker’s Official WhatsApp Group here!-Quotes by Maria Ross“Marketing is about elevating the truth of your story so that people who need what you have can find you.”“I embarked on 3 years of research on how empathy benefits organizations brands and leaders. How can we put it into action. In our personal and professional lives.”"All the Empathy Edge means is that Empathy is actually good for business. There’s data. There’s studies and research to show this. Empathy increases innovation, collaboration, it increases in some cases stock price, customer lifetime value, more customer loyalty, more word of mouth and buzz, it creates better performing people on team.""Ultimately, Empathy is not a soft skill to be dismissed. It actually gives you an edge in business.:"With Millennials and Gen Z, they are demanding their workplace to feel like a second home. Top talent is demanding these environments. The companies who don’t listen will die.""Let’s be very clear. Empathy is not being nice. You can’t create an empathetic organization by hiring a bunch of nice people. Empathy is not caving to unreasonable demands. That’s acquiescence. Empathy is a mindset of how you gather information and how you’re able to silence the noice of your own ego in your own head and open yourself up to seeing things from the others' point of view(s).""Empathy is all about that situational fluency. Adapting in the moment for the person in front of you.""Being curious, practicing presence , listening well. These are all the things you need to consciously force yourself to do if you wanna make room for an empathic