The intersection of technology, creativity, intention and attention

There is no business that is not a relationship business.

People buy people first. Humanity is the only product being sold.

Meanwhile, despite what the corporate slogans tell us, there are countless organizations that don’t practice this. Companies may put in a lot of work on the optics of caring, but the vast majority of them value profits above people.

And to a certain extent, that’s capitalism for ya. It’s an economic system that only works when more and more is being produced, aka, more and more hours being put in. It’s not surprising to see our humanity take a backseat.

My startup president once sent out a memo about this with her quarterly report. She told us all:

Remember that raising our positive relationships game is everyone’s job. Our numbers are somewhat meaningless, because how good our relationships are in the industry, and what people expect to see in the data, good or bad, affects how they interpret it. We have been working really hard to build strong positive relationships in the industry, and that makes the biggest difference in how our brand will be perceived.

To what degree is your work a relationship business? How are you leading with your humanity?

What’s interesting about the concept is, we can actually use technology to help us. It’s not like we have to spend our days schmoozing at networking events or going to expensive, exhausting conferences just to prove to customers that we’re in the relationship business.

One of the beautiful lessons we learned during the pandemic was, relationships are less about geography and physical presence, and more about intention and attention.

Think about it. How many video chats did you do with family, friends, coworkers and customers during quarantine? Didn’t you feel so incredibly connected to them?

It was beautiful. My five best fiends from high school, who usually only got together at weddings and reunions, set up a monthly call. And it was just like old times. It was like we were sixteen again, but with more body hair.

The same happened with my family. My ninety year old grandfather performed an entire magic show for all of my relatives one night. Sweetest thing I have ever seen. We all laughed and cried together.

These little moments proved to me that love is location agnostic. Geography is bullshit. If we really want to be in the relationship business, we can. It might require some tweaking of our behaviors and routines, but it can be done.

If your company wants to make a name for itself, figure out how you can use the intersection of technology, creativity, intention and attention to help others make a name for themselves first.

What makes you think you’re not in the relationship business?