Working Together Ep. 11 | Paying It Forward

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We had a very LONG weekend. If you caught any of our Instagram posts or Instagram stories you know that Hayes got sick. Here’s the thing when you have a sick kid and run a business, the kid takes front seat. Health and well-being of your family is #1 and so all of our plans to finish up work for the week were thrown out the window beginning on Thursday when he started to get sick. Running a business is important stuff, but our child is the first on the list no matter our own plans. So we spent the weekend caring for him and eventually having to take him to the hospital because of how bad things got for him. He is much better now and we are so thankful for modern medicine. It put a lot of perspective into life after a very long and difficult week.

With that said, we are happy that this new episode of Working Together is all about something so wonderfully positive: Paying It Forward. We have always made the point at business owners and humans to find times and places that we can intentional invest in those around us. It is hard when your schedule is demanding and if you are like me tend to be an introvert, but there is nthing we have found to be a better investment in ourselves personally and career-wise than giving back to the world around us.

Remember last week when we talked about how the grass is greener where we water it? Well, we are more or less continuing that conversation today. In this week’s episode we give 4 simple ways we have spent the last 7 years paying it forward.

Here are the 4 ways we make sure we are paying it forward in our business:

  1. Being a part of the community you work within:
    Go to conferences and invest in your community there. Get to know people. Speak at them if you are asked. Whether paid or not. If you see an ability to do it we do it.
  2. Speaking at places within your personal community:
    If you are asked to speak at a high school or college do it. Giving back to kids and community places near and dear to you is very important and not something to look down on at all. These things are life-giving and inspiring to be a part of.
  3. Take some jobs that don’t pay:
    Try to choose 1-3 jobs a year that are focused on goodwill to the world and community you love. Maybe your neighbor is throwing a block party and needs a poster so offer to do the design. Maybe your friend is throwing a fundraiser event for a local charity and needs some photos done, so offer up your photo skills. Whatever it may be do a few every year. It is important to give back.
  4. Answer emails from people who ask questions:
    Try to set aside time every week to answer emails from people who inquire about wanting help or perspective as well. Typically doesn’t equate to money, but it isn’t a fun feeling to email someone a question you have been thinking about asking them for a long time and not hear back in any capacity. Even if you cannot answer them all the time, try to get to them as often as you possibly can. I have even gotten to some nearly 6 months later because I really felt it was necessary to let those people know I had taken the time to sit and respond because they matter.

These are all very simple things. Things that probably within a year may take a total of week’s amount of work time at most, but they can make all the difference if you properly span them out and pick and choose what matters most to you.

Our next episode in two weeks will be all about How To Find the Core of Your Story, so make sure you check back and hear what our suggestions are.

Have a great week friends.

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