This is a big question holding so many dietitians (and other health professionals) back from getting started in business.

It also holds many people back from actually moving their business beyond the 'scraping by' setting. Can you relate?

If so, you're not alone.

Today I want to talk about my take on this: spoiler, the short answer is yes - but you'll have to listen in for the details.

Let's dive in.

Links, resources & mentions

Redefining success - ep 11 Dietitian Values Podcast

Schedule yourself first - ep 18 Dietitian Values Podcast

Kelly Diels

Episode Transcript

Laura Jean 0:04

Hello and welcome to another episode of The dietitian values podcast. I hope that wherever this finds you, you are having a great week. Today I want to talk to you about a question that I think weighs on many humans minds, many dietitians minds and other professionals and other people, entrepreneurs, when you might be thinking about starting a business or running a business. It's a question of, can you be successful and ethical in business. And this is a question that I know I grappled with for a long time because all of the messages that I heard around traditional business coaching and traditional business practices, was sort of this one kind of silo over here like this is how you run a business, this is how you do business. And then, all of my sort of training, all of my internal kind of value system and ethical compass was sort of, over here, and I couldn't see how the two could meet because based on what I was hearing around business stuff, I was kind of like huh, some of that doesn't feel quite right. And sometimes I would just drop the stuff that didn't really work, you know, with my values and ethics, but it was like a void, then and so there was nothing else. And so it took time, and it took a lot of learning and looking at things a different way, and working with other people doing amazing change making values based work to see that yes, you can be successful and be ethical, you can have a business, in which you can flourish in which you can support other humans in which you can make a difference, and in which you can still sustain yourself within our current system from a financial point of view but also from a just that flourishing that definition of flourish, which is to, to grow and to, to be in a congenial environment. So let's dig in shall we, let's have a look at it.

I think there's two parts to this question can you be successful, and, and ethical in business. So we've got success and we've got ethics. So the first part is success and the first part of success is defining your own version because defining your own versions of success is super important, because let's imagine that you, that we use the traditional, or our culture's definition of success which is about money, it's about external fixtures, I suppose, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with using any of those indicators of success. However, if we just use those in isolation, so let's just say we used money is a success indicator, and let's just say we said okay well if you crack, I don't know, eleventy billion figures, then you're successful. And so if you work and you do things and build a business and crack that number, It doesn't necessarily mean that you will feel successful. It doesn't necessarily mean that you will have what feels like success to you. So I think the really first important part is redefining success for yourself, and I have done a podcast episode on that so I'll drop the link in the show notes so you can check that one out. If you would like to kind of go a little bit deeper on that. The first real part of figuring out whether you can be successful and ethical in business is understanding what success is for you. If you look for those external measures of success. You might not actually feel successful when you hit them. So as an example, comparison, if you are a non diet dietitian or health professional, you probably work with humans around their food and their body. And a lot of the times for those humans traditionally the marker for success is a certain number on the scale. And if you have worked with many humans who have oscilated and fluctuated around those numbers and gone down to those numbers and then gone back. Often, when you dig in there when you dig around how they feel about themselves, their sense of worth and value their relationship with their body, when they hit that number, they don't feel quote unquote successful, they don't feel any different. And the same thing applies when we're thinking about our relation to relationship to success in business. And so what we know when we're working with the humans around their relationship with their body and their food is actually, it's nothing to do with the number on the scale, the number on the scale is something that diet culture has told them is the marker of success, but really what they want to feel is valued., they want to feel worthy, and they want to feel comfortable in their own bodies and they want to have a relationship with their body and their food that doesn't take so much time and effort and headspace and when they can get to those points, they actually feel successful. However diet culture doesn't actually offer that in that number on the scale doesn't actually offer that. And I think it's very similar when it comes to business. Hitting those numbers doesn't necessarily offer you the feeling of being successful. If it is not in built in your values.

So, I think the first part of this is to really get clear on your definition of success so that we can get clear on whether success and your ethics and your values go hand in hand. Spoiler alert, when you actually define success through your values, then there is no actual alternative but to be values based to reach your version of success. So, if we use the traditional or the external markers of success. I think you still can be a values and ethical values based ethical business and reach external markers of success, and I know many examples of people, of women particularly, and humans who are doing that. However, I think what's more important, and actually what will give you more a feeling of success within your business and then with your life, within your life, is to define your own version of success. And once you've defined your own version of success there's absolutely no way to reach that without acting in your values. And so once we create that version, once you create your own definition of success, then it actually becomes that you cannot work toward that, you cannot be successful without acting in your values, acting from that ethical into integrity based thing, and I'll just pick apart the word ethics here a little bit too because sometimes people talk about running an ethical business, as if ethicals, are the ethics, or morals, etc, are these kind of like universal things, but they're very individual and that's why I use the term values because I think it helps people to know, like people more understand or more identify with values being individual. I think what underlies our ethics and our morals and those things are our values. So what we see as ethical is underpinned by values. So some people might use the words interchangeably but if you do use them differently, your ethics, your morals they're underpinned by your values so it comes back, if we strip it right back, it's about getting clear on your values and acting in integrity in your values and that is what an ethical business would look like. like it's not this, again it's not an external like - if you do xyz then you have an ethical business because everyone's definition of ethical is different.

So, can you be successful, and ethical in business, I think the short answer is yes. I think that the only way to be successful in your version and definition of success is to be in your ethics and is to be in your own values. It's the only way. And something that I, another kind of I suppose thread to this I mean sometimes people might be under the belief and I think that there is a bit of a belief within traditional business and maybe with online business coaching that to be successful, you need to do these things, and that if we bring ethics into it like bringing ethics into it is something that we, you know it's de-railing. And I kind of think of it similarly to the kind of arguments or the discussions or quote unquote debates that come up around the economy and environment. And so when we're looking at the environment and climate change and climate action. So, anyone that's invested in that or anyone that, you know, has any kind of semblance of self awareness, or not even self awareness, has any semblance of awareness of science and, and what's going on in the world, it's very obvious that we need to make changes and take action around the environment, there's a certain demographic of people that think that we need to focus on the economy and actually, we can't focus on the environment because then the economy will be derailed, you know, the economy will suffer. And it's really, can't think of the phrase or the word, but anyway, it's, it's a funny way to look at it because the thing i,s is if we don't have an environment, a planet, or habitat to survive or flourish on, then there will be no economy, and it similarly when we look at success and ethics. If we don't actually operate from our values and our ethics, then you won't ever feel successful, you won't feel successful if you are not act, if you're not actually getting to that point of success through your ethics and through your value. if you have to act outside of your values, outside of your integrity, outside of your alignment with who you are and who you want to be and how you want to show up in the world, you won't ever feel successful, no matter how much money you earn, no matter what kind of like goals or, you know markers you might hit you know goalposts you might reach, because you won't feel successful. because it is not the version of your life that you have for yourself, it is not the definition of being a human centred human that you might have for yourself, if you are not embedding your definition of success in your values but also if you're not acting in your values, to get you towards success. And so often what happens. I think in the entrepreneurial space sometimes is humans start out with the idea of, you know, hitting these markers of success these numbers, and people get there. And it doesn't feel as good as they thought it would similarly to the clients that hit that number on the scale and are like well oh now my body, my, my hate of my body has not gone away. There are absolutely benefits, you know, more money, more, more access to resources, similarly for somebody who hits that number on the scale, less stigma around their body, less stigma from health professionals medical professionals, not us, of course, but that's the reality there are benefits however it doesn't necessarily change how they feel.

And so if you want to feel successful, not just have those external picture of success, then it has to be garnered through integrity, through you, sticking in your integrity through acting through that, through moving towards your version of success by staying in your values. And so that was really the main point of this I mean short answer I think success, and values based ethical business, Not only do they go hand in hand, I think that it, that it's integral, integral to actually reaching any definition any feeling of success is by doing it through your values and through you maintaining your own integrity and maintaining your ethics and your, you know, Treating people how it aligns with how you view the world and the morals and ethics that you carry through world, because you wont feel very successful without that. And so of course, as I said, it starts with defining your own markers or version of success, and like I said I'll link to that episode in the show notes so you can check that out. And then once you know what that is. Then, on the other, so you've got those two pillars again you got. Okay, this is my definition of success and then you've also got this is what values based, these are my values, and this is how I run a values based business, and then it's about looking at bringing those two together, kinda like bringing them together to form like a bit of an apex, or any of my 90s people out there. A flying V, tell me, Hey, if you're listening to this and you've got that reference that movie reference I want you to drop it in the in the comment section of the post or send me a DM. that you're all coming together and moving, then moving towards the same goal, which is bringing your values into the world and into your business and using that as the momentum to take you towards your definition, your markers of success. And part of that is the things outside of yourself of course because part of being successful, it's around deciding what helps you to feel that you are flourishing and some of that will be external things like you know a certain amount of revenue.

Kelly diels shares this. And I know it's from somebody else but she talks about how this person shared this - that you can't be a human centred or a feminist business, if the feminist or the human running that business is not thriving and flourishing. You also, and I've talked about this as well on other episodes, is that. And last week, particularly on self trust is a business strategy. You need to turn your values on, not in that one sorry in schedule yourself first, I'll dropped the link in the show notes, you need to turn your values towards yourself, just as much as you turn them towards other humans. a values based businesses, is one in which you are also the focus of your values as well not just the humans you work with, not just the external. not just the going out - the messaging the social media posts, the work you do with clients and all that. it's not just that those actions that are values based. how you are positioned within your business, and how you are treated, and how you are scheduled in is just as important when it comes to your values. So, and just as important as part of the definition of success if we're defining success or part of success being that you are flourishing, which hopefully that comes into your definition of success. You know, we don't want to just be just getting by scraping by, we want to be flourishing. We want to be accessing resources and another really interesting thing that Kelly Diels often talks about is that when women, particularly, or other under resourced groups in the community. So, what our culture would call marginalised, or minority which is generally not minority but marginalised , people pushed to the margins but mostly it's people who are under resourced so people under resourced as far as money, access and things go, so under resourced. when humans who are under resourced get access to resources, they're more likely to actually bring others along, they're more likely to reinvest that in community, and actually make a better world. So I know that you're here and you're listening along here because you want to figure out how to build a business but also how to bring your values in and how to make a difference. And I think that all of those things can actually work together, they're not separate they don't run parallel, you can be successful within your own definition of success, you can make a difference for the humans you work with you can make a difference within the world and, you know, our greater kind of community and society. And you can flourish, and you can bring your values along for the ride and in fact I would argue that there's no way to do any of those things without bringing your values without staying in your integrity, without being ethically driven.

So, that is what I wanted to share with you today. So short answer, yes, you can be successful and ethical in business. long answer, yes. Long answer, comes to the short answer of it's actually the only way. The only way to be successful to feel successful is to define your own version of success that's embedded in your values, and then to go out there and act in your values and stay in your own integrity to get you there. And if you want to you want support to do that if, if that feels like I love the idea but Laura but I'm not sure how to go about it, then hey, that's what I do. So, listen to the podcast. Come hang out at @dietitianvalues on Instagram, if you want to access the resources that I put out there, at no cost. I also have things that you can pay for. So I have my one to one coaching and I also have a webinar, an on demand webinar so there's ways that you can access support there. And if you have questions or if you just want to continue the conversation, then chuck it in the comments and anyone who got my movie reference of the Flying V then let me know. And also, if you have anything you want to say pop it in the comments, or always reach out by DM. if you don't necessarily like to broadcast your thoughts and feelings, comments or concerns, DMs are always open. Okay, so I'd love to hear from you around this does this resonate Do you feel like this gives you kind of like you know kind of helps you to move forward, helps you to maybe take that first, or next step, or is there things that you need a bit more clarity on reach out and as I said drop in the comments if you've got my movie reference of the Flying V. I'd love to hear it. My other my fellow 90s people. Okay, I will chat to you again soon. Until then, bye for now.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai