Do you practice empathy in business?
Empathy is all about creating that emotional connection with your clients, making them feel seen, heard, and valued.
Let me give you a recent example of what that can look like in business: a new restaurant recently opened near me. It’s called Parakeet Cafe, and serves super healthy food.
If you know me, then you know that I love healthy food. I love my green juice, and you’ll almost always find me with a gallon bottle of water nearby! I’m obsessed with healthy food. In fact, my love for healthy food was one of the reasons I started FITzee Foods!
I had to give Parakeet Cafe a try, and I was so excited when I went. Instead of just being a healthy restaurant, it was an experience. The owners were walking around the restaurant, talking to their clientele. They were even taking orders!
I felt seen, heard, and valued as a customer. Not only did the food taste super healthy, and make me feel good, but I felt like I was listened to and appreciated.
After that experience, I can’t wait to go back!
That’s how your business should work: when we’re able to show compassion and make our customers feel special and valued, they’re going to want to come back to us again and again.
This week’s guest on Success Unfiltered, Cathy Heller, moved to L.A. to kick off her music career, and after only a few months, her producer told her NO. Crushed, she looked for other ways to make money from her passion for music, and she quickly found a perfect fit, making music for TV shows. Her career skyrocketed when she practiced empathy in business, and listened to what her clients wanted, and gave them exactly what they were looking for. Now, she inspires countless people to pursue what they are passionate about!
What does it mean to practice empathy in business? How can that look for your business? And most importantly, how can empathy change your business?
Empathy in Business Changes Your Perspective
Cathy moved to L.A. expecting to make it big in music. Only a few short months after moving there, she was dropped by her record label.
However, she didn’t let that hold her back from finding success… She eventually found her niche, writing music for TV.
What made her stand out?
Empathy in business.
Instead of writing the songs that she wanted to write, Cathy built a rapport with her clients and wrote specifically for the TV shows that she was working with. She listened to what they wanted, and created that for them.
That made her stand out from any other person they worked with.
We entrepreneurs are a stubborn and driven bunch: we have dreams and a vision for what we want to accomplish. But if we stubbornly stick with what we want to do, we may completely miss what we have to offer our clients.
Choosing to work with our clients from a place of empathy means that we’re going to pay attention to what our clients and investors truly want. The more that we understand what they want, the better we can deliver the perfect product or service.
Empathy in business will completely change your perspective, and how you work with others. More importantly, it will change how they work with you.
Empathy Finds Your Ideal Client
Creating empathy with your clients helps you say YES to your absolute best clients and investors.
That connection is significant. Instead of just being a business transaction, it’s a human transaction.
Business is more than just dollars and cents and simple transactions. It’s about making those connections, and helping others make their dreams come true.
You want to be able to make those connections.
Just like the owners at Parakeet Cafe connected with their clients, spending time with them as they frequent the cafe, you and I can connect with our ideal clients.
I’m sure that the owners at Parakeet Cafe don’t just want to connect with customers and clients who may be passing through town, and want a quick healthy meal. They’re going to want people like me to come: people who become obsessed with their brand, and who are going to tell the world about them.
When you build that rapport with your ideal client, they’re going to be so excited that they’re going to want to tell the world about you.
Empathy in Business Fills Needs
You are not here on earth to simply fill a void: you’re here to fill a need.
When you come from a place of empathy, you’re going to find ways to make your clients feel valued and needed. Ultimately, people want to feel seen and noticed, and when you bring empathy in business to clients, you’re able to help fill those needs.
Each of us, as entrepreneurs has our own journey, and how we practice empathy. For me, I help empathize with my clients, and help give them confidence to close more sales. As I work with accountants, I’ve been able to connect with them, and help them to learn how they can dramatically increase their income, so they are charging more and working less.
Taking the time to empathize and emotionally connect with them empowers me – and them – to fill that need we both have.
In Conclusion
Do you practice empathy in business? Or are you so focused on what you want to achieve in your business that you lose sight of what your clients want and need? After reading this, do you think you’re going to embrace more empathy in your business?
