Episode 347: Ann Anderson Gets Products into Big-Box Retailers

Episode Notes

“New products are hitting store shelves every two minutes,” says Ann. How are entrepreneurs gaining expertise quickly? By hiring a retail specialist. Ann Anderson, MBA, and founder of Retail Partner Solutions, LLC, gives a brief overview of what we need to know about getting our products on Big-Box retailer store shelves like Walmart, Costco, Lunds & Byerlys, Hy-Vee, Petco, Target, Specialty Stores, to name a few.

If you are rolling out new products in the food and beverage space, consider talking with Ann. Her retail expertise, resources, and strategies could help you accelerate growth. She has a proven record of succeeding across many categories, including launches of kid’s snacks, home essentials, pet products, coffee, ethnic products, and beverages.

Here are some of the questions Ann answers still pertinent in 2022 and 2023:

* What is needed to get your finished product ready for Big-Box Retailers?

* Why not approach Big-Box Retailers yourself?

* When is a good time to hire a retail specialist?

* Do you have your channel strategy worked out?

* What is the priority of your brand from a channel perspective?

* What is the timeline for getting new products on retail shelves?

* What elements do you need to organize?

* Online operates differently; in what ways and what do you need to consider?

* What is involved before and after getting our products on store shelves?

In 2021, when we taped this conversation, I asked Ann about closing the door on corporate employment and planting her feet solidly in business ownership. It is an essential step in succeeding with a new venture after leaving a fulfilling legacy in corporate America. Owning and committing to each part of redesigning your future is exercising bravery. Listen to her answer. DOWNLOAD

U.S. and Global Entrepreneurship in 2021 and 2022

I was curious to learn about 2020 and whether our economy started more businesses than closed. Yes, that is the simple answer. On average, annually about 130,000 U.S. businesses close. In 2020 the number of closings spiked to 200,000, as reported by the Federal Reserve. We won’t know the accurate number until well into 2023.

Use the table below to understand how many new U.S. businesses formed in which month and year. This will give you an idea of business start-up trends. We started 2021 with 134,623 new businesses more than in December 2020. We are ending this year with new business formations up from prior years. The future looks brighter than the prior few years, but who knows what is behind the horizon. I know that with faith and purpose, we can get through anything.  

U.S. New Business Formations

 

YEAR

 

 

MONTH

 

 

New U.S. Businesses Formed

 

2004

 

 

August (1st-month new businesses were tracked)

 

 

159,076

 

 

December

 

 

193,153

 

2005

 

January

 

202,362

 

 

December

 

233,400

 

 

 

2020

 

January

 

 

279,

Episode 346: Ann Anderson Transforms from Corporate Executive to Resilient Retail Specialist

Episode Notes

In 2019, Ann Anderson’s aspirations changed. She left her 31-year corporate career with TIME, Inc. to launch Retail Partner Solutions, Inc. We discuss how she went from an employee mindset to acquiring an entrepreneurial mindset and the resiliency it took to land on her feet as the retail industry remarkably changed forever in 2020.

Ann Anderson, MBA, has three decades worth of retail expertise. Her enthusiasm for getting client products into big retail stores like Target, Costco, and Walmart is make-it-or-break-it for clients. Ann does whatever it takes to move herself and her clients forward. She strategically works the odds of success in her client’s favor.

Ann has this relatable quality that is part of resiliency. Relating skillfully to others and our world makes us feel safe and connected and helps us bounce back from failures and heartbreak. In Ann’s younger years, you will hear the strategy behind her three strengths in relating. According to Rick Hanson, Ph.D., resilient individuals have three strengths they exercise when relating: courage, aspiration, and generosity.

I re-listened to this 2021 conversation with Ann. The anxiety I felt quickly dissolved as I relaxed into the conversation and connected with Ann’s upbringing. It is comforting to hear how her Italian Mother and German Father raised her and Ann’s two brothers. Ann says, “I come from a family of strength.” She and her husband, Howard Anderson, have passed the baton of strength to the next generation by raising two resilient adult children.

Ann has been a client of mine since 2019. Every time we have a conversation, I witness greatness in the making. Being a quick and enthusiastic sponge absorbing as much learning as her mind can take in fuels her entrepreneurial leadership.

Hear other parts of our inspiring conversation:

* The most significant shift Ann needed to make in going from a corporate mindset to an entrepreneurial mindset.

* Being raised by an Italian Mother and German Father. The impact of moving from Michigan to Iowa.

* Ann’s derailed experience with an injury as a gymnast in high school and the courage it took to reshape her aspirations.

* Ann’s two brothers, who liked to play tricks on her, prepared her for speaking up in corporate settings.

* Early on, when there was a noticeable gender disparity, Ann’s courageous voice helped get a girls’ sports team started.

* The gems Ann learned being a senior executive at TIME, Inc.

* Pitching over 30 products and what she learned starting a business in a pandemic.

* Her life mentors, including her gymnastics coach and me.

* Her passion for bridging the gap between buyers and brands. 

Note how Ann cleverly packaged her retail expertise and got busy connecting with entrepreneurs in the food, beverage, kitchen, and other miscellaneous industries. Getting products in big-box retailers like Target, Walmart, Costco, and others is a hurry-up and wait-for kind of game. As a results-driven executive and retail strategist, Ann continually understands each retailer’s processes and timelines. Being skilled at building relationships is a must, and Ann is exceptional at it. DOWNLOAD

P.S. Fast forward about one minute to jump into the current information. I also mention the book I am still writing. The title is not yet solidified, but it is about mentoring and how you can be resilient as you evolve with your business.

Episode 345: Building Multi-Million Dollar Businesses with Skip Thaler, Part III

Episode Notes

Skip was building Intercontinental Marketing Corporation (IMC) while starting another venture. Purchasing duplexes and fourplexes as a passive investor served his interests in the 1990s. It turns out tires and real estate go together. Once IMC was secure in his son George’s hands, investing in larger apartment complexes became appealing.

In December 2019, Skip purchased his 25th and last acquisition, an 8-unit complex Brownstone apartment building built in 1890 by the Cathedral in St. Paul, Minnesota. He describes another critical point in his success, hiring a management company for real estate to handle the day-to-day activities like collecting rent. A common thread to all his ventures was working with small groups of contract workers to manage the details so he could focus on other financial details like growing his businesses.

Skip has enjoyed 20+ years of renovating and restoring these 100-year-old apartment complexes making each complex a standout in the neighborhood. He describes himself as the opposite of a slum lord investing to make everything appealing, from the curbside to each building’s inside. Skip’s attention to detail is apparent in this venture too. Original photographs from the late 1800s of the Brownstone properties are adorned in the hallways and entryways, giving a personalized touch. Beautifully landscaped yards with Mums-filled planters outside the buildings in the fall changed seasonally to make tenants feel good. New vintage lightwork, 100% wool carpets, restoring the house, and preserving past woodwork are a few examples of Skip’s effort into each building and unit so people could have a nice place to live in.

‘A crowning blow’ turned 2020 into a liquidating year instead of an expansive one when a confluence of events induced a stress-related wake-up call. The coronavirus pandemic hit—riots in Minneapolis and St. Paul. A growing adverse political climate towards Minneapolis businesses and, to some extent, in St. Paul created a hostile environment and a no-win scenario for business property owners. You will learn more about that.

Skip’s advice. City governments must work more effectively with small business owners to rebuild our Twin Cities. Private property owners feel abandoned. Skip says, “the long-term problems are greater than people realize.” Hear the details.

A 52-Year-Old Memory Resurfaced. This experience provoked a 52-year-old memory for Skip. When Skip started at IBM, he needed training in Detroit, Michigan. Visiting Detroit, he felt sadness and fright after Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered on April 4, 1968. Riots broke out for a week. He will never forget the smell of burning houses and watching tanks roll down the street. These feelings resurfaced after the protests against police brutality broke out upon George Floyd’s death on May 4, 2020, in Minneapolis. With resolve, Skip says that it will take decades to rebuild and repair the damage done to our city and its people that summer. In some respects, the Twin Cities are forever changed.

Skip Thaler ends 2020 with a complex but liberating decision. In an upcoming episode, you will hear the outcome of his decision to sell his 25 rental properties and what our podcast conversations had to do with it.

Attributes of Resiliency

One of Skip’s endearing qualities is his willingness to acknowledge his limitations and strengths and reflect on his learnings. These qualities are attributes of having a resilient spirit. Often entrepreneurs are accused of being workaholics. Are you a workaholic or a hard worker? Find out for yourself. Take the 

Episode 344: Building Multi-Million Dollar Businesses with Skip Thaler, Part II

Multi-venture entrepreneur Skip Thaler talks about his terrifying moment after merging his Fleetwood Franchise with Tires Plus and how he influenced a workable partnership with Tom Gegax and Don Gullett to expand Tires Plus from 11 retail stores to 40 or from $25M to a $50M business. Timing and the right partnerships made the difference between success and failure in Skip’s life, always teeter-tottering on the fringes between financial disaster and exponential growth.

 

I just finished reading the inspiring book Shoe Dog by the founder of Nike, Inc., billionaire Phil Knight. Terrifying moments were part of his journey too. A must-read autobiography for every business owner and entrepreneurial leader who wants to learn what it takes to build a global brand. Phil wrote that until he took his athletic shoe company Nike, Inc., public in 1980, he had been in debt most of his adult life. He directed Nike from 1962 until 2004.

Phil and Skip’s journeys show how women were unconsciously left out of leadership. Phil organically created his executive teams with people (men) he knew in track-n-field. The first female executive hired at Nike was in 2010, executive vice chair and general counsel Hilary Crane. Skip followed a similar course in working with men in his circles.

Growing profitable businesses is intense and expensive. Phil’s borrowing to pay for his ideas started with the 50 dollars he borrowed from his dad. This led to borrowing millions of dollars from banks and other investors. Phil’s well-told story validated my experience working with business owners and entrepreneurs over these past 30 years, including Skip’s experience as he reflects on his journey here.

The intensity to drive profits never lets up, which is part of the excitement and other emotions like the fear of survival that can drive humans to new heights in self-awareness and brand expansion. Cash-flowing businesses can become a science of mastering intuition and calculations in financial risk-taking, timing, and circling yourself with the right team and money resources and operating together within the restraints of moral and ethical behavior.

I marvel at Skip’s impeccable timing that he has honed over decades of launching, growing, and shaping new ventures. He trusts his intuition, especially when he is freaked out. Even his hobbies of growing 1,000 orchids and sailing worldwide have a depth of time mastery in their life cycle.

When the idea starts taking shape and curiosity grows, is that when Skip’s passion emerges, and his focus, skillsets, and energy take hold? Or does his entrepreneurial leadership process take shape differently? You decide.

Another element in timing is within the ‘windows of opportunity’ where critical decisions can create wealth. Skip discusses those leaps of faith and how he lands firmly on his feet with boundaries that support healthy relationships.

Below are some pivotal moments within the spectrum of timing we discuss.

* The business model of the wholesale and retail sides of the tire business begins competing. Now what?

* He was turning over inventory. How about someone else worrying about turning the inventory? Skip has another idea that works better for him and his temperament.

* Who of the four partners has the most significant financial exposure? How long can one sustain financial exposure? How many nights can you go without sleep before changing your economic model?

* A hiring technique that works for each new hire.

* I am regaining self-productivity by founding Intercontinental Marketing Corporation.

* Learning the international marketplace with a $5,

Episode 343: Building Multi-Billion Dollar Businesses with Skip Thaler, Part I

An obsession with opportunities started in his twenties for Skip Thaler, a multi-venture entrepreneur. We start when Skip is out of graduate school and working at IBM. His entrepreneurial mind recognized his first business opportunity. This inspires Skip to start a new business and build it into a viable business. He perfects the process of generating millions of dollars in multiple ventures and breaks down his life story by reflecting on learned lessons.

This first of three conversations lays the foundation of Skip’s entrepreneurial lifestyle. His ability to recognize opportunities and develop businesses from them is not unique to him. It is a unique skill set that all entrepreneurs possess and often take for granted or don’t realize that others do not see opportunities as they do, nor do they want to risk their livelihoods to pursue a higher goal that potentially could fail. That is one of the reasons why it takes so much energy to get new products and services into the marketplace. We must help others see the opportunity and convince them that the risk of trying our new products or services in their stores or investing in your new venture is worth it.

Skip summarizes five lessons from his first ventures, including a 5-5-2 theory he learned from his tire business that you won’t want to miss. You will get an answer to this question, is this theory what led him to his next venture with Tires Plus?

I first aired this series on November 23, 2020. That year turned into a liquidating year for Skip. Instead of expanding his real estate holdings, a confluence of events led him to sell his properties. The coronavirus pandemic hit. Riots in Minneapolis and a growing adverse political climate towards Minneapolis businesses created a negative environment for business property owners. We still feel the impact of that time and subsequent events since then.

We also discuss often not talked about issues like the financial and emotional sacrifices loved ones need to make. The degree of discipline it takes to become profitable. The experimentation required when implementing new business ideas. And the ethical, moral, and emotional health and well-being challenges. You will hear how Skip addresses these challenges as we begin analyzing each multi-million-dollar venture.

Skip’s success is tempered by humility and compassion for others. He is the first to tell you that marrying his high school sweetheart, Jill Kroll, and building a life together raising their three children and now six grandchildren are one of the best decisions he has made.

Dolly Parton described her ambition at age 74 during a Friday evening PBS Newshour episode that sparked a thought about Skip. Dolly Parton described her purpose and inspiration—releasing a Netflix musical and her first album in 30 years in 2020, A Holly Dolly Christmas—by saying, “I would rather wear out than rust out.” Skip has embraced that same philosophy, as have I. Enjoy our conversation. DOWNLOAD 

 

 

 

 

NEXT STEP: Challenge yourself and do the Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring (C.A.L.M.) Activities, below. 

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Episode 342: 5 Levels of Conversation and a Mother and Daughter’s Business Transition

Did you know that 80% of businesses worldwide are family-owned? And second-generation companies have only a 30% survival rate, according to the Family Business Institute. Tune in to hear how Dr. Lois Zachary and Lisa Fain managed a successful business transition of ownership from mother to daughter. Plus, we discuss five levels of conversation that you can use to deepen your connections during the holiday season.

Dr. Zachary has been cited as “one of the top 100 minds in leadership today.” She and Lisa Fain, her daughter, were deliberate about their purpose and values, identifying a process and developing a plan. The ownership transition of the Center for Mentoring Excellence began four years before the official handoff in 2018.

A coach worked with both of them and didn’t shy away from asking Dr. Zachary tough questions to help her psychologically and emotionally let go. Writing an operational manual gave Dr. Zachary a path to transfer knowledge and decades’ worth of documents, research, client information, etc. This operating manual also helped prepare Lisa to take over. Dr. Zacharay said Lisa brought freshness, curiosity, and inclusiveness into their mentoring work, especially essential now. Their formula worked, and I am grateful to re-air our conversation from November of 2021 and what worked for them.

Dr. Zachary also breaks down five levels of conversation: monologue, transaction, interaction, collaborative engagement, and dialogue. In healthy relating, each person’s needs are considered equally—the same with conversation. Monologues are few and far between. The approach with each other respectfully moves to collaborative engagement and meaningful dialogue with a focus on understanding and strengthening the connection. These conversations are heartfelt, with genuine feelings and an understanding that you both are doing the best you can. You feel your authentic self when you finish the conversation.

There are common misconceptions about mentoring and the cycle of mentoring that we clarify to finish our conversation with what they are looking forward to. Below is a beautiful acknowledgment Lois and Lisa included at the end of the book they co-authored, Bridging Differences for Better Mentoring.

“We acknowledge each other with love, admiration, and deep gratitude. It is rare indeed that a mother and daughter get to collaborate professionally. What a privilege it has been for us to co-author this book. We encouraged each other to bring our special magic to Bridging Differences for Better Mentoring and were able to weave our subject matter expertise and varied experiences together to create a book that reflects and elevates our strengths and passions.”

I don’t think a mother and daughter relationship can get much better than that. They agreed. DOWNLOAD

 

 

 

 

NEXT STEP: Challenge yourself and do the Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring (C.A.L.M.) Activities, below. 

 

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Redefine how you lead and redesign your business. Dual innovation leadership works!

* Strategies to Grow Your Business

* Meaningful Conversations

* Evolve How You Lead

* Get Support, Insight,

Episode 341: What Lisa Fain Learned Growing Up in an Entrepreneurial Home

Lisa Fain, C.E.O. of the Center for Mentoring Excellence, says that growing up in a 1980s entrepreneurial home gave her a sense of purpose, place, and accountability. It reinforced an understanding that Lisa could contribute to the world, shape her work, and be independent. This independent thinking started in her formative years when Lisa and her brother were encouraged to make plans and prepare their meals.

When Dr. Lois Zachary founded Leadership Development Services, L.L.C., and its Center for Mentoring Excellence, her daughter, Lisa Fain, was in high school. Women entrepreneurship was on the rise, “according to the 1988 State of Small Business Report, the number of sole proprietorships owned by women increased 62 percent between 1980 and 1986. I found this impressive since women weren’t encouraged to start businesses until 1972, with a few exceptions like Mary Kay Ash, who founded Mary Kay Cosmetics in 1963. 

In 1972, the floodgates opened for women when Title IX (a federal civil rights act) was passed prohibiting sex-based discrimination in any school or any other education program that receives funding from our federal government. Women’s organized sports began their rise alongside business ownership because federal monies started flowing into them.

Now, “women account for 41% of the global workforce and control more than $20 trillion in annual spending. Predictions are that this number will go up to $28 trillion in the next few years.” 

As Dr. Zachary built her educational consultancy and her husband, Ed Zachary expanded his legal firm in Syracuse, New York; they still managed to be present and engaged parents. Role modeling the benefits of fulfilling work fueled Lisa’s entrepreneurial spirit that sprouted in her 30s and 40s. Hear how Lisa took her diverse interests in political science, sociology, and economics with a social justice bend to acquire an interdisciplinary degree from Northwestern University in Chicago. Two required courses taught by a cherished mentor helped Lisa understand ways to repair the world. Eventually, she became a lawyer, mediator, coach, and C.E.O. at the Center for Mentoring Excellence.

Other Conversation Highlights

* Although not a fair way to measure oneself, comparing Lisa’s start to someone else’s finish was a benefit in determining Lisa’s major.

* The next generation. They are raising Talia and Emily with David in their entrepreneurial home.

* Lisa’s lifework of inclusion, diversity, and equity. Creating a mentoring culture for retention and attraction.

* Insights into Millennials and Gen Zs.

* Alternatives to the Peanut Butter approach.

My conversation with Lisa sparked my curiosity to research the newest female entrepreneurship statistics. I am excited to report that we’re progressing globally on inclusion, diversity, and equity. Check out the statistics below.

Key Female Entrepreneurship 2022 Statistics 

* 22.4% of small business owners in the U.S. are women.

* 17% of black women are in the process of starting or running a new business.

* The female entrepreneurial activity rate in the U.S. is 13.6%.

* 14% of women-owned bus...

Episode 340: 4 Key Concepts to Bridging Differences with Dr. Lois Zachary

Happy Halloween!  Here is a Reader’s Digest joke for you that isn’t scary.

Q: The maker of this product does not want it, the buyer does not use it, and the user does not see it. What is it?A: A coffin.  

October 27th was National Mentoring Day. I retrieved this groundbreaking conversation from the archives to elevate mentoring and acknowledge two luminaries in the field of mentoring excellence. A mother-and-daughter team focused on inclusion. Dr. Lois Zachary discusses her background, defines mentoring and the difference between coaching and mentoring, and four key concepts that can bridge differences in mentoring relationships.

I say ‘groundbreaking conversation’ because in 1972 when Dr. Lois Zachary started her career, there were over 400,000 women-owned businesses in America. Today, more than 13 million businesses are owned by women thanks to women like Dr. Lois Zachary, who pioneered a path for us.

Her daughter, Lois Fain, is the new CEO of the Center for Mentoring Excellence to role model what they preach, teach, and write about in Bridging Differences for Better Mentoring. Their newest and first co-authored book. 

Dr. Lois Zachary is an internationally recognized expert on mentoring and has been cited as “one of the top 100 minds in leadership” today. You’ve likely seen mention of Dr. Zachary’s books, or read her quotes, in The New York Times, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Inc. magazine, T&D, Leadership Excellence, The Chronicle of Higher Education, or other business and leadership news outlets.

“Mentors and mentees may come from different backgrounds and have a limited understanding of each other’s cultures and outlooks, but mentorship remains one of the most powerful tools for inclusion, professional development, and talent retention,” writes Dr. Lois Zachary and Lisa Fain.

Listen as we focus on how Lois Zachary became the author, Ph.D. graduate, and entrepreneurial leader who founded Leadership Development Services, LLC and its Center for Mentoring Excellence. You will also learn Dr. Zachary’s definition of mentoring, the difference between coaching and mentoring, and four key concepts that bridge differences in mentoring relationships. You will also learn that she has a supportive husband, Ed. They married within six months of meeting in 1969 and have two adult children.

Mentoring Definition

Dr. Zachary and her daughter, Lisa Fain, define mentoring as “a reciprocal learning relationship in which a mentor and mentee agree to a partnership where they work collaboratively toward achievement of mutually defined goals that will develop a mentee’s skills, abilities, knowledge, and/or thinking.” They focus on “four key concepts that relate most closely to bridging differences in a mentoring relationship: reciprocal, learning, relationship, and partnering.” Tune in to learn more about these four key concepts. Also, learn how adults make meaning and a big reveal at the end of our conversation. A hint, guess her maiden name. DOWNLOAD

 

 

NEXT STEP: Challenge yourself and do the Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring (C.A.L.M.) Activities, below. 

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Episode 339: Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows with Dr. Melanie Joy

Every day we are confronted with a relational paradox that begs an answer to these two questions. “What enables caring people to participate in, or otherwise support, practices that harm others, be they human or nonhuman? And what, then, could help shift this psychological orientation?” Questions Dr. Melanie Joy found answers to by researching the psychosociology of eating animals, a phenomenon she named carnism.

What Dr. Joy concluded is this. “Eating (certain) animals results from extensive social and psychological conditioning that causes naturally empathic and rational people to distort their perceptions and block their empathy so that they act against their values of compassion and justice without fully realizing what they’re doing. In other words, carnism teaches us to violate the Golden Rule without knowing or caring that we’re doing so.” Deconstructing our carnistic system taught her how violent or oppressive ideologies are structured. (Powerarchy, 2019)

When Melanie was twenty-three years old, she ate a contaminated hamburger (campylobacter) and became severely sick, needing hospitalization. Surviving this incident—and questioning other aspects of how she and most of the rest of us were raised—took her on a journey from meat-eater, and vegetarian to vegan and activist, theorist, author, social entrepreneur, and the eighth recipient of the Ahimsa Award validating her work on global nonviolence. The Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela received this same award. You can hear her brilliance as we discuss Why we love dogs, eat pigs, and wear cows.

Today, our purpose is not to convince you to eat a plant-based diet.

Our goal is to expand your awareness about choices and encourage becoming an ally.

What compelled our family to become vegan in 2021 was a long journey that began by reading World Peace Diet by Will Tuttle, Ph.D., during yoga teacher training in 2016. Dr. Tuttle’s belief floored me. It was a disturbing ‘aha’ moment. He believes we will not have world peace until we stop killing animals. Growing up on a dairy farm, I was initially horrified by how many animals we killed and ate. I realized we were not allowed to name our cows and pigs because seeing these animals as pets would make it almost impossible to kill them, so we were taught emotional detachment.

Of course, our farmers aren’t in the business of killing animals. They are in the business of raising animals and crops to provide food to others, us consumers. What does a farmer do when their livelihood needs to change? They reconfigure their businesses. You will find out how a global sausage maker transformed his business.

Pondering that new awareness about how I grew up, our daughter, Olivia, encouraged us to watch documentaries like Cowspiracy, Inconvenient Truth, Blackfish, Seaspiracy, and What The Health. After that last documentary, we committed to going 98% vegan. There are situations where there are no plant-food based, so we allow ourselves to choose. 

My learning continues. I have read books like How Not To Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease by Michael Greger, M.D. FACLM and founder of nutritionfacts.org, and The Proof is in The Plants by Simon Hill. What has made it easier to live a plant-based lifestyle was helped with the results of today’s Guest Mentor’s work and Dr. Melanie Joy’s collaborations with other organizations to transform how food producers and manufacturers run their businesses. A positive consequence is more options in the grocery store. Transitioning to plant-based foods is more accessible now because we have more choices, i.e., coconut and almond milk, chia seeds to replace sugar, beyond burgers,

Episode 338: Building Relational Literacy with Dr. Melanie Joy

In 2021, our daughter, Olivia, turned me on to Guest Mentor Dr. Melanie Joy. I have devoured her books, podcast conversations, and TEDTALKs. I use her relational literacy tips by noticing the flexibility that love and acceptance bring. I align boundaries around my values of fairness and kindness, for example. Or, notice how I feel when my rights are overstepped, angry, and feel empowered to do something constructive about it. As a result, I feel more connected with those in my life, and you can too.  Enjoy this transformative podcast conversation I am re-airing to promote relational literacy to get us out of the dark ages.

Melanie is an amazingly gifted, brilliant social psychologist, theorist, educator, and international award-winning author of six books. She is a pioneer with a global mission to raise awareness of the obstacles preventing people from interacting in ways that create a sense of mutual connection. These obstacles are internal (psychological) and external (social), which are key reasons why we act against our interests and others—often without realizing that we’re doing so. With awareness, we can think freely and act compassionately to create healthier and more fulfilling relationships and a more equitable and sustainable world.

Melanie says, “Most of the problems in our lives and world are caused by relational dysfunction, a dysfunction in how we relate: as social groups, as individuals, to animals and the environment, and even to ourselves. Therefore, developing relational literacy—the understanding of and ability to practice healthy ways of relating—is essential for personal, social, and ecological transformation.” She has been influential in raising my awareness and has helped me transform my behaviors in three areas we talk about: how we relate to ourselves, each other, and the world at large.

Today we discuss one of her six books. A one-stop guide to building relational literacy, Getting Relationships Right: How to Build Resilience and Thrive in Life, Love, and Work. We haven’t been taught relational literacy. As a result, we are in the dark ages. You will understand more as you listen. Our conversation will facilitate your ability to move the pendulum toward healthier relating; even a little movement makes a difference.

Some of the gems in our conversation include:

* How we have bought into the narratives that drive unconscious choices.

* The mentality and thinking behind nonrelational behaviors.

* Two sides to a coin, the nonrelational and relational.

* The Formula for Healthy Relating.

* Tips for Healthy Expressing.

* Solving life’s more pressing problems start with learning relational literacy. Hear how that is possible and how it relates to the issues you are solving through your business entity.

Melanie joins me in conversation from Berlin, Germany, where she lives with her husband and colleague, Sebastian Joy. They are interdependent, powerful together, and apart. Successful and connected in their life work. You will learn how they practice healthy relating personally and as world leaders.

Sebastian is transforming food systems by working with world leaders replacing conventional animal products with plant-based and cultured alternatives. Melanie is building relational literacy facilitating transformation in how we participate in the invisible belief system, or ideology, that conditions us to eat certain animals, known as carnism. A term coined by Melanie in 2001. 

This a transformative conversation because it is thought-provoking. You won’t want to miss it.