I recently joined the board of Business for Good – a nonprofit that unites small business owners in San Diego to drive policy that improves our community.

BFG believes that since small business dominates San Diego County, our city’s policies should represent the core values of tax-paying, conscious-minded small business owners like myself rather than just the two Fortune 500 companies here. (Novel concept, I know.)

To help grow BFG and expand its mission, my B Corp-certified creative agency, Visceral, is excited to be doing our first significant pro bono project for them: creating an updated brand and website, which will launch in fall 2019.

Besides the apparent benefits of pro bono work – like feeling awesome about helping others and getting involved in the community – businesses stand to gain a lot from undertaking voluntary work.

Here are some ways I’ve learned pro bono projects can create substantial value for your business.

• Employee retention – In particular, younger people in the workforce are not satisfied with just having a job. They want to be part of something grander; an effort that will change the world for the better in a tangible way. Visceral is lucky in that all of our clients are organizations with a social purpose. But that’s not always the case for all companies. Pro bono work for socially conscious organizations proves to your staff that you share their belief in making a positive impact.

• Train junior staff – Professional development, conferences, training, and workshops are all super valuable, but they can also be super expensive. I know that small businesses don’t always have the budget they wish they did for these things. But with pro bono work, you get the chance to train junior staff on your turf, in ways aligned with your organization’s values and methods. This allows you to build out onboarding and training programs (something often missing in today’s fast-paced business culture) where junior staff can take the lead on pro bono projects without much risk at all.

• Easier networking and free exposure – This one can be a little contentious in my line of work because people are very often asked to work for free in exchange for “exposure.” While this may initially sound like an excellent opportunity, it’s generally not a good idea because let’s be real – we all have bills to pay, and exposure doesn’t pay them. This is especially true when that ask comes from a profitable organization that’s just trying to exploit you for free labor. However, pro bono work is the one exception to this rule. When you’re doing free work that you believe in for an organization that’s making a positive impact in your community, you can leverage that to build your brand awareness in a very authentic way.

• Break into new sectors – We’ve all had that fantasy client who we’re just dying to partner with, but they’re in an industry we’ve not yet worked in. Pro bono work is a fantastic way to get your “in.” Delivering great work in that desired sector gives you a case study to add to your portfolio while building new relationships in that area you want to grow your business in.

• Trust & Values – What do you care about? What are your core personal and professional values? As small business owners with genuine budget constraints and never-ending expenses, we don’t always get to choose clients that completely align with these values. But pro bono projects give you the chance to do that, and a platform on which to demonstrate your values to a community of potential clients. It also revitalizes your approach to your work and reminds why you do it in the first place.

• Knowledge-building – Building out new products or service offerings can be a crucial part of small business growth. But, again, it can require a hefty upfront investment and might be difficult to market during the early stages. Pro bono clients can be your foray into these uncharted waters (a point you must be 100% clear with them about), helping you flesh out your pilot projects and build a significant experience that will help you roll them out down the line.

As small business owners, it can no doubt be challenging to carve out the time and resources for pro bono projects. I get it. It took Visceral 13 years to be able to do our first major one.

But I must say, the incredible knowledge and leadership insight you gain – not to mention those warm, fuzzy feelings – makes pro bono work one of the most valuable things you can do to help grow your business.

How do we describe authentic leadership, and how does it lend itself to building trust with your peers and your staff? 

Actually, authenticity has many facets, but primarily, it comes down to being genuine. If a leader is genuine, people know what to expect, and the opportunity to build trust begins. Trust is built through daily and consistent action. The leader’s integrity becomes predictable. Let’s look at four attributes that contribute to being authentic and, in turn, build trust.

1. Self-awareness—Know thyself first

A genuine leader takes time to identify the personal experiences brought to the table, along with competencies and personality traits. The skills don’t have to be extensive, but a leader knows how to communicate with others and model the competencies she owns. Extraordinary leaders are those who emphasize their strengths and use them effectively as their self-expression in a leadership situation. 

2. Lead with heart

An authentic leader is all heart. You should lead your team with courage and empathy that only comes from listening to the heart. These are the soft skills that leaders need, and they include compassion, kindness, and understanding of others. As an authentic leader, consider what if feels like to walk in others’ shoes. 

When you lead with the heart, you are willing to show vulnerability. This also increases trust. We know that to foster trust, you, as a leader, must first trust others. By trusting others first, you show your vulnerability. When you develop mutual trust, you find it easier to share leadership responsibilities throughout the organization. You find that people who will go the extra mile knowing their leader cares.

3. Model Transparency

To show authenticity, start with open, transparent communication. The image you project in public should not be drastically different from how you are in private. Transparency allows you to be honest if you make a mistake. It will enable others to feel comfortable admitting their faults when things go wrong. People respect leaders who are honest and transparent. Take a minute to think of the personality traits you utilize at work that are also present in your private life. The willingness to self-disclose when you don’t know something — shows transparency. As you craft your unique leadership style, think about how you can maintain transparency in your actions and decisions.

4. Draw on your own experience

There is no better teacher than life. When working with your staff, sharing lessons you have learned from past experiences illustrate your points. Also, relying on your life experiences helps you see things differently, and the context will have greater meaning. Sharing how your experiences have shaped your decisions is one of the best ways to develop your staff and help them grow in their leadership capacities. 

Drawing on this concept, allow others to share their experiences to help inform the decisions being made. This respect for others’ opinions also sends the message that “we are all in this together.” When your team knows an authentic leader cares about and respects them personally, then they can devote their energy to creativity, innovation, performance, and productivity.

To summarize, the authentic leader’s approach should be inclusive, intended to encourage the building of positive relationships within the workforce. Foster an atmosphere of openness where individuals are recognized for their contribution and any success is shared. Through consistent, respectful behavior and communication styles, an authentic leader builds trust throughout a workforce.

We live in times where you can reach and do anything. New technologies have given us tremendous power at our fingertips, to create networks that can transform our world. However, these open platforms can bring about new challenges.

“When the going gets tough, the tough get going,” goes the famous phrase, that tends to stir the spirits of even the faintest of hearts.

Therefore, if you genuinely want your dreams to become “real” in the physical sense, you must learn to build resilience on the inside, to allow prosperity to flow on the outside.

The definition of resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties — to have a level of toughness. But it also means to have the ability to spring back into shape — to have a degree of elasticity. Toughness and flexibility are both necessary characteristics when fighting to transform your dreams into tangible realities.

Here are two ways to build your toughness and elasticity:

1. Learn how to deal with the “No’s” of business.

Some years ago, I took the step of becoming a Mary Kay beauty consultant. Although I realized this wasn’t in alignment with my purpose, I learned a great deal from my mentor at the time. What she told me, spun my whole way of thinking around, especially about the relationship between a deal and emotions.

She said, “You need to play a mental game with yourself to see how many “no’s” you can get within the timeframe of your sales calls. That way, the “yes’s” don’t matter as much.”

I didn’t understand it then, but I do now. She was freeing my mind from the stigma of hearing the word “no.” When it comes to business, it’s not a word that targets you personally, should dent your ego or make you feel like you’re not good enough. It’s just a simple way for your potential lead to say they’re not ready to commit yet. You can always guide them towards clarity from any confusion, but it’s not about you.

I know many people, including myself, who have shut down or quit after a few “no’s,” then wondered why their vision failed. Transform the meaning of “no” into an opportunity to pivot or a need for clarity. Preparing mentally to hearing the no’s, in conjunction with the courage to keep moving forward, is the best way to scale your toughness.

2. Learn how to stretch and bend with the times, but without comprising your values or visions.

Often, your plans aren’t going to go as expected. Every transformation is a journey and you cannot expect change by taking the same route you’ve always traveled. It will get uncomfortable, pushing you into uncomfortable territory — but these are the branches, sticks, and thorns of the journey. Grab a few Band-Aids and keep pushing.

While on this journey, use your values as a foundation for decision making and keep it aligned with your inner truth. The values and promises you’ve dedicated yourself to — in the service of others — are the real root of prosperity. Remember, elastic stretches and bends in all sorts of ways, but always bounces back to its original state.

To sustain toughness and elasticity, learn how to take immediate action when the opportunity presents itself.

As a business tech strategist and advocate for women in business and technology, I’ve been through ups and downs in my business and career. I’ve learned to acquire these two characteristics —toughness and elasticity. There is no such thing as job security anymore, so you may need to reshape your thinking to realize that you may need 2 or 3 additional sources of income.

I’m often asked: “How do I sustain things while juggling the burden of my daily life?” The answer? Mastering toughness and elasticity in everyday life.

How does an entrepreneur increase their power? If you believe, as some do, that power is all about title, position, authority, control, and supremacy, you’ll find it a challenge.

Entrepreneurs can give themselves any title or position they want. They have complete authority to do whatever they want whenever they want, and they have ultimate control.

Ask any successful entrepreneur how much time they spend thinking about this type of power and they will laugh. Because the answer is zero.

But ask these successful business people about the importance of energy, clarity, confidence, impact, and influence, and you’ll get a very different response. Entrepreneurs know their success is almost totally dependent on this definition of power.

In my work with many great entrepreneurs, we focus on how they can be powerful by increasing their:

• Clarity with simple choices around discipline.
• Influence with simple choices around supporting others.
• Impact with simple choices around creativity.
• Energy with simple choices around self-understanding and insight.
• Confidence with simple choices around values.

Successful entrepreneurs are optimizers. They don’t have time to waste.

Entrepreneurs starting out don’t have the benefit of cadres of help. They need to be as powerful as possible.

How about you?

Burnout at work is now at a national crisis level. The World Health Organization recently classified “workplace burnout” as a disease. Employers are searching for ways to decrease stress while increasing productivity and positivity.

For many people, the workplace can be stressful and an unpleasant place to spend their days. Much time spent at the office is considered a necessity for making a living.

Today, workplaces are striving to become more than just a place to put in one’s time, and instead become places to enjoy. One solution is that many workplaces are introducing mindfulness, and it’s changing how people work together and improves the work environment too.

If you can communicate with your fellow workers or boss mindfully and thoughtfully, it encourages you to be more focused and productive, which is exactly what mindfulness does. It teaches you how to be present in the moment, with total awareness, and to bring the very best of yourself to work. When you make an effort to do this, you decrease stress, increase productivity and efficiency, and form a better connection with your co-workers.

Making simple mindfulness tools available in your business can help employees become more present and aware of their environment and the people they work with. Teaching mindfulness will raise the overall level of consciousness of your workplace.

Here are some mindfulness tools you can use in the workplace, to transform it into a place of positivity and productivity:

1. Start each day by practicing mindfulness. Begin with a simple breathing exercise, which will help with grounding and focus. A very simple mindfulness breathing exercise is:

On the inhalation, (silently) count 1,2,3,4 (1)

On the exhalation, count 1,2,3,4 (2) 

On the inhalation, count 1,2,3,4 (3) 

On the exhalation, count 1,2,3,4 (4) 

Encourage your workers to do this at any time of the day when they may feel stressed or overwhelmed.

2. Practice “noting.” Along with mindfulness, noting is a practice that helps employees become aware of what they’re feeling or experiencing during their workday. Noting means “noticing” or “paying particular attention” to something. When a fellow employee or your boss does something that may annoy you, don’t react to it. Simply note what you are feeling and stay present with it. Be aware of how you feel, and note it silently, breathe through it, or tell yourself something like: “I’m irritated or annoyed right now and don’t have to react to this;” or “I can tell my fellow worker or boss how I feel another time when I’m not as affected by my emotions.” 

Noting is useful for self-regulation and practicing how not to react, but it can also be used for basic tasks such as noticing how it feels when you’re drinking a cup of coffee while you work. Feeling the warmth of a drink, or becoming aware of its smell and taste can help to ground you and make you feel less stressed.    

3. Pause during your workday. Many workplaces are busy non-stop, and have meetings back-to-back, causing employees to feel they can’t take a moment to breathe or take a break. Find your moment of pause among the busyness. This means taking a conscious breath and connecting to your inner core or place of inner calm. This can be your belly or your heart. You will get better at this the more you practice.

4. Bring Mindfulness into the conversation. Don’t be hesitant or afraid to speak about mindfulness with your fellow workers. Everyone can use a friendly reminder to practice it in the workplace, and if you or one of your co-workers starts experiencing signs of stress or lack of focus, share a mindfulness tip with them. Gently suggest taking a break or using the counting breath exercise. Not only will they appreciate the reminder but a de-stressed co-worker may become your new ally at work.

Mindfulness is the perfect tool to help businesses run smoothly and effectively. By raising consciousness in the workplace, it becomes a more effective environment where greater success can be achieved on many levels.

I held a series of interview with some of today’s most accomplished Founder-CEOs who are redefining the concept of customer excellence for the future.

They better meet the expectations of the new generations, who react far more quickly to how they’re treated. With them, one wrong move creates a “paper cut” that can forever highlight your mistakes — across social media. But maintaining customer excellence starts with the environment and culture the leaders create for their people. 

These leaders all have winning approaches to stategic customer relations – which show that customer success is about far more than just the customer. Here are their four key strategies: 

Happy Employees Make Happy Customers

Kingston Technology is the world’s largest independent manufacturer of memory products with 3,000-plus employees worldwide. It’s been listed on Fortune’s “Best Companies to Work for in America.” Founders John Tu and David Sun built a culture of respect, loyalty, flexibility, and integrity, including a substantial investment in employees: the belief is that if they take care of their people, their people will look after others inside and outside the organization. “The business will follow,” Tu said. 

Be a Rebel and an Evangelist

Big River Steels sees itself as a tech company that happens to make steel, a mindset forged by the founding CEO John Correnti that carries through today with CEO Dave Stickler. According to Mark Bula, the former CCO, Big River’s culture begins with people at the top who truly believe in empowering its workforce and thinking beyond the status quo. The company defines itself as  “reimagining what it means to be a steel company in the global marketplace.” Bula believes leaders need to create an environment in which workers feel they can grow as individuals as well. “The way to get people excited about it was to get them to understand, we’re going to do something completely different,” he said. The leadership eats with employees, interacts with them daily, and drives the message that they are not making a commodity grade of steel, and their employees are not a commodity grade of employer either. “You’re here because we need people to be rebels, because we need people to create a rebel brand.” 

Give Your Players What It Takes to Be Highly Productive

Jerry Colangelo, former owner of the Phoenix Suns is a repeat “Sportsman of the Year” and influential NBA coach who has done it all. Raised in the humble “lunch box community” of South Chicago he saw college and pro sports as a place to level the playing field. Unafraid to fail and unintimidated by competitors, he built game strategies on calculated risk. He created the Phoenix Suns as a family-based culture of relationships, trust, and loyalty, and knew that great players would inspire far better loyalty from the fans who are the team’s community. Following a poor start to an Arizona Diamondbacks’ season, he quickly improved the team’s talent, a move that showed his respect for the team’s community. He made a series of high-prestige appointments and accountabilities, built cultures where players would cherish the team or country they represented, and repeatedly focused on hiring the right people to make winning teams. Money was never the issue when recruiting, but his players and staff understood he expected their total commitment to teamwork. 

Provide Customers with “Fanatical Support”

Morris Miller, co-founder of Rackspace and CEO of Xenex Disinfection Systems, builds unorthodox customer-centric organizations. At Rackspace, he recruited people who could deliver fanatical customer support, and reconfigured organizational silos to put a member of each functional area on customer serving teams. The result: more integrated and efficient service that shortened the distance between Rackspace and customers. At Xenex, he put machines and employees in locations until they were convinced of the product’s life-saving potential — and could bring the Xenex skillset and expertise into hospitals with hard-to-move professional forces. His problem was to solve their problems — turning Xenex experts into co-workers on location. Despite the growing dominance of technology today, he bets future business success will hinge on who can provide human support. 

Founder-inspired customer service strategies will secure customer loyalty far beyond 2019. In the cases of all the organizations I studied and the leaders I interviewed, the leaders’ commitment to employees — in terms of behavior and investment — is what drove business success. That success continues to reflect the values of the founders. Change those leadership behaviors, and you risk future customer losses. But as these leaders noted, if you help a customer succeed as much as you would for yourself, you will always win.