What does our care mean for your small business?

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Good afternoon and welcome everyone. My name is Eddie Lopez. I am the Senior Vice President of Small Business Client Experience at Truist. I'd like to start by welcoming the business and nonprofit clients who've joined us today. Thank you for choosing to work with Truist for your financial services.

We also welcome any businesses who are not Truist clients. Indeed, today's discussion and insights are meant to benefit everyone. We also have a number of Truist branch leaders with us and we'd like to thank you for the work you do in partnering with small businesses in your communities.

Why are we here today? I'd like to start by sharing a couple of insights from our annual small business survey, where we track what's top of mind for business owners. First, probably not a surprise to anyone, most of the business owners in our survey are stressed. Second, while almost a quarter of owners started their business to better manage work life balance, 4 out of every 10 owners surveyed admit they are still struggling with this. And not having balance can have significant negative consequences on physical and mental health, as well as relationships.

Small business owners care for their employees and their communities, but they need to care for themselves as well. Today, we will talk about how you can help manage your stress as an individual and as a business owner. We are also going to talk about your purpose, in your life and in your business. This is an important topic for us here at Truist.

Truist is a purpose-driven company. Our purpose is to inspire and build better lives and communities. We believe in this wholeheartedly. And each of us on the Truist team go through sessions like this one to identify and develop our own individual purpose.

This is how we support our teammates and it is essential to having a good business. To share with you my personal purpose statement, as a leader and as a father, my purpose is to inspire and develop compassionate servant leaders who build and sustain a better world. Today, we will get you thinking about your own purpose. In a few moments, you will meet our Senior Purpose Advisor, Bright Dickson, who has worked with me and many business owners in getting at this important topic of purpose.

We'll start off with an expert perspective from Michael Skordeles, our Senior US Macro Strategist at Truist on the current economic environment and relevant points for small business owners. After that, Bright Dickson will lead us on a discussion of work-life balance, what it means and how to work toward it. We will also be joined by our featured business owner, Kellie Cartwright, Chief Executive Officer of MeckEd, who will share their perspectives and experience. So with that, we'll turn it over to Mike to start us off with his thoughts on the latest economic trends that are most relevant to small business owners.

Thanks, Eddie. The overall economy has been more resilient than most people have expected, even ourselves on some level. That said, overall economic activity has slowed down, particularly as the summer has started to fade, we've seen some of the economic activity start to fade as well. So that's not necessarily a great backdrop not just for the overall economy, but. Certainly for small businesses

Additionally, over the course of the last year plus, we've seen higher interest rates, which does impact small businesses a little more than even larger businesses, which tend to be able to borrow at lower rates. Additionally, micro businesses, the smallest of small businesses, tend to use personal credit, things like credit cards to finance their businesses. So that's an additional headwind for small businesses.

But overall, some of the themes that we've talked about in the past are still intact. That being staying on expenses and keeping your pencil very sharp for those sort of things is going to help the bottom line for small businesses. That said, as we turn the page from 2023 into 2024, the overall backdrop is still pretty solid. And we don't expect a whole lot of job losses as we move forward. So even though we expect a recession, we expect it to be rather shallow. So that's the bad news.

The good news is that shallow recession should lead its way as far as economic activity a lot higher as we move through into 2024 and into 2025. And so some of those structural pieces within the economy, things like housing, were particularly under built before the pandemic that's remained an issue. And those things should be tailwinds for the overall economy as we move forward.

Again, bringing it back to small businesses. We are still worried about inflation. That's still an issue. And we are still worried about the Federal Reserve keeping rates higher for longer. So that's a continued headwind as we move forward.

So a bunch of crosscurrents that are really in the face of small businesses as we move through the balance of 2023 and into 2024. So hopefully that sets the stage for the rest of the discussion. So back to you, Eddie.

Thank you, Mike, as always, for your excellent insights and perspective. Next, I'd like to introduce one of our featured businesses. Today we have Kellie Cartwright, Chief Executive Officer of MeckEd. Kellie, welcome. Thank you for joining us today.

Thank you for having me. Glad-- I'm happy to be here.

It's a pleasure. It's a pleasure. To help our attendees get to know you a bit better, could you start by sharing what business industry you're in, what your business does, and who are the customers you serve?

OK. So as you said, I am the Chief Executive Officer of a small non-profit MeckEd. We serve high school students and their families. We are a college and career readiness organization. And we also advocate for public education. We are actually on site in four high schools. We're in Harding, Chambers, West Charlotte and Garinger High Schools, but we serve all of Mecklenburg County.

That's excellent. How long have you been in your role and how long has MeckEd been serving these communities?

So MeckEd has been around since 1991 and has evolved into who we are today. I have been with MeckEd all of about one month. So since August 1st. So I'm pretty new but I hit the ground running. I hit the ground running.

That's excellent. That's excellent. That makes sense. Well, and Truist, we're proud to partner with you and helping to further your mission. And thank you again for being with us today.

No problem.

So now let's get into our main topic, how to balance the demands of life and work, especially in the current economic environment. As we look to anchor to our purpose, I'm excited to introduce our resident purpose expert. She's a student and teacher in resilient skills and positive psychology. Please welcome our Truist Senior Purpose Advisor, Bright Dickson.

Thanks so much for having me, Eddie.

Thank you. Thank you. You're wonderful. I appreciate all the work that you do to help us here at Truist. Thank you for joining us.

Yeah, my pleasure. Great to be here.

Excellent.

So today, Eddie, we're going to talk about this huge topic of work-life balance. And I know it's something that I'm consistently having to manage. Kellie, I bet you have to manage it.

Absolutely.

Eddie, you have to manage it. We all have to manage it pretty much constantly, right? And it's interesting because we've been talking about this topic for years and years. I would say since like the '60s and the management schools, this topic of work-life balance has come up and we've been thinking about it since then. But no one's quite solved it yet, right?

Because it's not really something you solve. It's not really something you achieve. It's something we manage over and over and over again, right? So there's no moment where we're going to perfectly achieve that work-life balance. And we're going to get to the mountaintop and everything's going to be fine from then on, right?

There's no secret formula. It's about managing it over and over and over again. And there's this idea of balance, right, where we've got a couple of things going on and the weight and we have to figure it out. But for some people that word balance doesn't really work, right?

Some people like the word harmony. Some people like other sort of metaphors for it. But there are so many ways in which we all sort of know what we're talking about. But the way that we frame it really, really matters, right?

So another thing that I think is really interesting about this work-life balance thing is that we put these two things in a dichotomy, right, as if there's the work us and then the life us. And then somewhere in the car on the commute home a change happens and we're our life people again, right?

And that is really not how it works. We're one person, one body, managing all of this. So in some ways, this idea of work-life balance it's not necessarily a great framing but it's what we have, right? It's what we're all working with.

And we've all got things to manage at work. We've all got things to manage at home. And it's really about figuring out how does this all work together, right? So one of the things that I like to think about, and because of the work I do and the work we do here at Truist, where we're so focused on purpose, one of the things that's really important is making sure that the way that we're thinking about work-life balance is anchored in something, right?

So if you think about that scale, right, what's holding that scale down so that it doesn't on its own tip over one way? And the way that we like to think about that is that's your purpose, right? That's your personal purpose. And then everything else comes up from there. So when we're thinking about how we make decisions around work-life balance, it's really important to have that anchored in your own purpose.

For most of us, right, unless you're here at Truist and we say, hey, like we'd really like you to create a personal purpose statement, most of us don't necessarily think about naming what that purpose is, right? Really sitting down, thinking through it for ourselves, and naming what is it that we want our lives to be about? What's our own personal why? But it really, really helps, especially when we're trying to manage all of the things we manage to be deeply anchored in on what we want to do, who we want to be, and that's what we call our personal purpose.

So I'm curious for you guys. How's this all landing for you? Kellie, how do you relate to this whole work-life balance thing? What's your experience of it? Tell us about that.

Well, I think you hit the nail on the head that you can't really separate work and life. You're. Not a work person and then a life person I think work-life balance, if that's whatever you want to call it, is really based on the individual. Very much based on the individual.

Yeah. I have learned that what work-life balance looks like to me it may look different for somebody else. I have different priorities than somebody else. And so I am balancing being a mom, being a wife, being a daughter, balancing church, balancing community. So I'm balancing different things and it's going to look different depending on the person.

So my perspective on work-life balance has evolved over time. And I know that it doesn't mean 50/50. It doesn't mean I need to allocate this here or this there. Some days it's more work. Some days it's more life. But again, you said, what is your purpose? And I have to understand what my priorities are. And I have to be intentional about making time for those things that are important to me. At the end of the day, how do I feel about how I spent my time? And if I don't like it, fix it the next day.

Yeah. Kellie, that is so smart. And I love that word intentional, right, because it's all about being really, really intentional with how you're spending your time, how you're splitting it up, how you're resting and rejuvenating.

Yes.

Right? Because rest can be many things. And then are you doing things that rejuvenate-- right, is your work in and of itself rejuvenating?

Right.

Right. All of that stuff really matters. Eddie, how about for you? How do you relate to this whole topic? Do you have this aced or you still got some work to do?

Oh, if only I had it aced, Bright.

Yeah. No I think it's a constant work every day to remind yourself why you do what you do. For me also as someone who has a team that I manage but also have three sons, it's trying to role model those behaviors.

Yeah. That's such a great point.

We do things because we're anchored to our purpose. What are you going to do today that's going to get you closer to your purpose? But also understanding what my sons view as their purpose and how what they're doing is getting them closer and how I can support them in that. Also for the team I manage at work. Understanding their purpose and how I can manage the work, assign the tasks, and help them navigate their careers to keep them aligned with their purpose.

And Eddie, something that you're picking up on and, Kellie, you were too, is how important relationships are to this whole conversation, right? So when we say work, right, what we usually tend to mean is sort of what happens in the office, what happens on that email account, all of that with the employees in these kinds of work relationships. And then when we say life, a lot of times what we mean is family.

And as parents, right, that's a huge thing. But Kellie, I also love that you pointed out that you're a daughter, right? That you're also working with your sort of family of origin to make that happen, which also takes a lot of work.

And so when we're thinking about this idea of purpose, it can be hard to put your finger on. And so Eddie, you know that here at Truist we work really hard and give a lot of structure to help people figure out what this is for them. Because it doesn't necessarily come naturally to figure out what your purpose is. And it takes a lot of self-awareness.

It takes a lot of, I think, experience as you were pointing out, Kellie. That these things are going to change. Your relationship to these things is going to change over time as you get wiser, as circumstances change. And all of that really, really matters. So when we're thinking about understanding our purpose, right, and anchoring in our purpose, in order to manage our work-life balance there are a couple of ways to think about that.

So some clues to help you understand what you need to do. So when you're thinking about your purpose, ask yourself questions like, what brings me the most joy? Like in my day to day, what is it that brings me joy that I actually like doing? Because I don't know about you guys, but there are some parts of my job that do not bring me joy.

Right.

Right? Expenses, commuting. Those are not the joy places for me. But stuff like this, right, working with people, working with business owners, working with teammates here at Truist, that brings me joy, right? So really think about what is it that brings you joy?

Think about what accomplishments you're proud of, right? What are the things that you've done that you're most proud of? So maybe it is like a degree or a diploma or getting that promotion. But for most people it's like I worked on this project and I helped these people in this way. And that I'm really proud of.

So these are all things that are going to be clues to help you really hone in on what's your personal purpose. You can-- we've been talking about happy stuff so far, but there's also loss and frustration. And why were those things emotionally resonant for you? That's going to have clues to your purpose too. Thinking about what's the best thing that happened to you today? These little everyday hits of greatness and the things that we really like, those are clues.

And then you want to think about, OK, like what are the common threads that bring all of these together? What do these all have in common? And how do I need to work with them and understand my purpose? And as you're thinking about this, I really encourage you to, just as Eddie spat out his purpose, he told us exactly what it was earlier. And I really encourage everyone to think through what is that purpose for you, to write it down, to have it in front of you.

I have a whole sticky note system where it's on my mirror, it's on my desktop at work, so, that I see that purpose statement over and over. And I get to check in on it and say like, OK, how am I measuring up to this right now? Because I'm not always. I'm not always living my purpose.

And that's normal and real, but I've got to try to live into it just like I've got to try to live into work-life balance. So what do you guys think of that? When you think about your purpose, Kellie, and work-life balance, how does that relate for you?

Well, so I am a very spiritual person. And so purpose is something that I have had to really pray about and figure out. OK, especially when you're going through things at work and you're saying, is this really the job for me? Am I really doing what I should be doing? And I had to really pray and say, what should I be doing?

And I realized over time that I'm leaning into my purpose when I am not drained. And when I say drained, I don't mean physically. Because there are some days when I am just tired physically. But for example on those days where I may have worked all day long and I have a neighborhood meeting at 7 o'clock. And I may be physically tired, but I'm excited about going to this meeting. That's me leaning into my purpose. And that gives me energy, even if I'm physically tired.

Or for example, even outside of work I direct a the youth choir at church. We practice at 6 o'clock at night after I've been at work all day. And I'm tired. I'm physically tired. There's other things that go along with it. You have to prepare for it. But, excuse my double negative, I can't not do it.

Yep.

I would feel worse about not doing it than I would about doing it. So that lets me know I am leaning into my purpose because that drives me. It gives me energy. And I enjoy it. And if I don't do it, that's when I'm unhappy.

Yeah. Kellie, you set me up so well for what I was just going to talk about, which is why purpose matters, right? Like why? Like this can be just a thing we do and like we write our personal purpose and then we move on. And it was the thing we did. It was an activity we did.

But there are real benefits to having a stated purpose and really knowing in your life. And one of them, as you were just saying, is energy. When we understand why we're doing what we're doing, that gives us energy.

And particularly, just as you're saying, in those tough moments right when we need it, right when we're going to yet another thing. Or maybe we're having a hard time at work or a hard time at home. Stuff happens to all of us. Having a purpose is like another-- it's really like the source of energy that keeps us going in those moments when things just get hard sometimes. Another thing it does is gives us guidance. So I think of it a little bit as like a compass.

It tells me where North is all the time. So when I get a little lost in the sauce, I'm hearing a lot of other people tell me what I should do and who I should be, because you all know how people love to opine on what other people should do, right? When I'm feeling lost, my purpose tells me exactly what to do. Now I'll say it's not always the easiest thing.

Right.

Right. The thing that my purpose tells me to do usually isn't easy. I've got to kind of stretch into it. But it gives me guidance. It tells me where to go, what to do. Another thing that it does is just give you information. It's an informational point that guides your decision.

So when I've got a hard decision to make or maybe even I'm coming up in a conflict with someone and I'm really weighing, OK, what's the right way to go here? What's the wrong way to go? My purpose is going to help tell me that, right? It's giving me information about what's really most important to me that I might not be able to access when I'm in those moments where emotions are running high and I'm feeling all out of sorts. It's got that information for me.

And finally, it's about intention, right? You mentioned intentionality around work-life balance. This is exactly why purpose matters here. Because it gives you that intention. And you get to act from a place of intention rather than reaction, rather than sort of just trying something out. When we're anchored in our purpose, especially around work-life balance, we can make decisions more easily because we already know what's important and what really, really matters.

So as you're thinking about your purpose, one thing to know is that we tend to see two different types of orientations of purpose. And many people have a little blend of both. But we do see these two sort of domains. So the first is like a task-oriented purpose statement. So for some people, they're more focused on goal achievement, personal accomplishment, personal development. And their purpose is really around that. Sort of more around achievement, goal orientation, that kind of task-oriented purpose statement.

Other people, and I'm in this camp, other people have more of an other-oriented personal purpose statement. So it's really about social emotional stuff. It's about relationships. Maybe a sense of really sort of helping make positive change in the world.

So we do see those two orientations of personal purpose statements. Both are excellent. One is not better than another. It's really, to your point, it's really personal and really important to what to find what works for you, what feels right for you, what gives you energy.

So I'm curious, Eddie, how's this landing with you? When you think about personal purpose and work-life balance, how do those two relate for you?

That's a great question. I thought about my purpose to say has it evolved as I've gotten older. And I think it has. I think early on in my career I was probably more task-focused and goal. And all about the metrics and what I was trying to achieve. And maybe I'm softening in my old age or something, but now it is a lot more on the relationships, and the impact, and the legacy that you want to try and leave afterwards.

And purpose anchored in that helps me to take whether it's been a good day at work or whether it's been a bad day at work, at least did I do something that moved me closer to my purpose? And that helps. The other thing for me is it feels like there's never enough time to really celebrate and reflect and look back. And I think now it's not only looking back for myself and saying, this was great. This was a good achievement.

And that kind of still is the task part of it. I can name some specific items. But also how can I do that for the people around me as well? And help others who I know are just so busy actually be able to have that time to celebrate their achievements. And let them know that I noticed, I recognized, and I want to celebrate with them.

Yeah, I love that, Eddie. And I think you're exactly right about our purpose is changing as we change. And as we grow and evolve and become wiser as people, our purposes are going to do that too. And I've had several versions of my own personal purpose. And while they're different, I can see the thread that moves through them.

There's a common thread in all of them. But it's absolutely great. I mean, in fact, we advise it to change your purpose as you grow and change. Now you don't want to be changing it every day because then you're not getting the benefits but it does help. How about for you, Kellie? How's all this landing for you?

So I think you're right when you say it's a little bit of both. I do recall, like you said, there's a thread and you mentioned evolution. That's spot on. Because I remember, I've always been a other-oriented person. But as a younger person, younger in my career I'm trying to figure out, should I be that?

Especially when you're trying to figure out-- you know, money is a big issue. I work in a nonprofit. So you don't go into nonprofits for the purpose of getting rich. It's not going to happen. It's not going to happen.

But you ask yourself, is that really important? How much money is a big deal? Can I sustain myself? Can I sustain my family? And I've grown to figure out, OK, what really is important? And realize it's OK to be an other-- have an other-oriented purpose.

I'm living a great life I may not make as much money as somebody else. But on that work-life balance piece of it as a nonprofit, as a person working in nonprofits, I've got that. I've got that. I can take my kids with me to work if I need to. And it's OK. Nobody's going to have a problem with that, especially with us being an organization that serves kids.

Right.

You know, so it's OK. So I'll take that balance. We're happy. We're happy. I may not be able to buy a Ferrari or anything like that, which is OK. But I am living a really good life and that is what's important.

And you mentioned your kids and setting an example for your kids. I need my kids to see me happy. I need my kids to know what it looks like to be happy, to enjoy life, and to be able to balance both. So I'm OK with being other-oriented, having an other-oriented purpose and walking in that. I'm happy with that.

Yeah, absolutely. And if it brings you energy, right, this is one of the things that we know about purpose, is that when you've got your personal purpose it literally brings you energy. Like you can feel it. There's a change in your body and you can feel it. And that really, really matters.

Thank you guys so much. And now we've talked a lot about purpose and work-life balance, but I want to move to strategy. We are practical people here at Truist. And we want to make sure that we move to strategy.

So how do you really set up systems that are anchored in your purpose to manage your work-life balance or however you like to think about it? So yeah, great. So first when we think about this, we need to talk a little bit about stress. So for you guys, when you think of stress, like what pops up?

Physical. The physical impact of stress.

Yeah.

And how does that show up for you, Kellie?

Oh my God, sickness, illness.

Yeah.

Not being able to think straight.

Yeah.

I mean, and you don't want that.

Yeah.

You don't want that.

And so I remember an episode of Golden Girls. I'm aging myself, episode of Golden Girls where Dorothy keeps going to the doctor and saying, what's wrong with me? What's wrong with me? And the doctor saying, there's nothing wrong with me. And finally she figures out it's really just exhaustion and stress.

And that's real. You sit and wonder, what's wrong with me? What's wrong with me? And you really have to ask yourself, am I stressed out? And stress will absolutely do that. And so I just think about the physical impact stress has on aging you and just making you feel bad.

Feel awful. Yeah. How about for you, Eddie? What do you think about when you think about stress?

Yeah. I think both from a physical standpoint, you know, you feel sweatiness in the palms. You might sweat a bit. And then from an emotional standpoint, I find that all kind of close off.

Yeah.

Almost as sort of a guarded position. And it's really been through the help of work that we do here in looking at our purpose and other coaching we get through the Truist Leadership Institute to say, how can I be observant when I'm going into that mode, guarded protective mode, and how can I then step outside of that to be what I need to be for myself and for my team?

Yeah. I love what you all are saying. And part of what you're both saying is that when you think about stress, it's like stuff happens, right? And when we tend to talk about stress, it's got this negative connotation, right, where when we're stressed it's code for, I don't feel good. I feel anxious. I'm closing off.

So some people close off. Some people move outward. Maybe they get a little testy. Maybe you'll have some anger show up.

We get tired. We get burnt out. We get sick. That's what we tend to think of when we think of stress. But an interesting thing about stress is that it actually exists on a curve, a bell curve, like many other things in our lives, stress is on this curve.

So when we think about stress, we tend to think about what happens when it gets out of control. And we get all those physical, emotional symptoms, all of that stuff happens, right? But there's also good stress. So for most of us, and I sitting here at this table we're all people who have achieved some stuff and we've learned how to manage some of that stress so that we actually perform.

And so all of that stuff on the good side, right, what we call eustress, E-U, which is just the fancy prefix that means good. It's called eustress, right? So it's all the stuff that gets us out of bed in the morning.

So if we didn't have enough stress, enough pressure, we'd all still be in bed today. Because why would we get out? Because there's no motivation.

So that good stress gets us up to that point of peak performance. So that top of that bell curve, that's all eustress. And then it's a bell curve. So it's an average. So everyone's sort of peak point is at a different place. And when we're a little older, our point may be somewhere when we're a little younger, depending on what we've got going on that point can shift.

But we all know that. That little point where our stress is just high enough to get us to manageable peak performance. And what happens is when we add too much stress, that performance starts to suffer. And by performance we mean work performance, sure, but also stuff like emotional regulation. Also stuff like managing your physical symptoms.

All of that, that's when we go downhill. And we feel that. And that's what we tend to call stress. But we've also got that good stress, right, stuff that helps us perform. And that's important to keep in mind because we've got to manage that good stress so that we don't get into that bad stress.

So if we think about how do we manage all of that? We've got to think about how we spend our time. And just like you were saying earlier, there are things that you do that take up time but they're actually rejuvenating. You can't not do it because it's rejuvenating.

That's a huge part of stress management, but also managing your life as a whole. So when you think about your life there are all these sort of different domains. So we've got work, we've got health, we've got fun and recreation. We've got friends and family. We've got managing our money, because for a lot of people that can be very stressful, as we know.

We've got your relationship with your significant other. Relationship around who do I want to be as a person, my personal growth. Your physical environment. And then, of course, work and health, right? So we're always managing all that.

Some of those places are going to be more stressful for us than others. But when we tend to think about work-life balance what tends to happen, and I think especially with small business owners since so much of the success of that organization is literally on their shoulders, we tend to let stuff slide. So maybe I'm spending so much time at work that I'm not doing my walk in the morning. Or I'm too tired to work out or plan my meals.

And I've been meaning to call that friend for like six months now. Like I'm going to have to drop out of this thing, this social organization that I really like being a part of because I've got so much work and it's all on me. And those things are really important for small business owners to keep in mind. Because there is so much pressure. And for a lot of small business owners, because for many of them and I think this is probably your case too, what they do is really aligned with their purpose.

So there's that much more sort of risk that I'm actually going to go a little overboard because this is so meaningful. And I'm not going to take care of myself enough. So one of the ways to think about this is when I'm thinking about work-life balance, balancing all of these things, all of these domains in my life, the way to think about it is like, OK, what is my purpose have to say about this?

What does my purpose say about how I'm spending my time and what I really need to do and how I need to break all of that up? Eddie, how's that landing for you? How are you doing on that? I'm curious. How are you doing on that right now? Let's just say, where are you may be well-proportioned, where you may be a little weighted on one side or another?

Yeah. I think we've tried to refocus on what it takes to be at our best. What we have to do from a self care standpoint so that I can be sharp at work and be able to do what I need to do. And so we bought the Peloton this year.

Hey.

Doing some of the Peloton biking. But it also helps to do it together, me and my wife. And so if we hold each other accountable. We are also so close to each other that we know when the other is at a point of high stress. And so the other person kind of needs to help them de-stress.

Yeah.

And it's the little things like getting the coffee ready in the morning or changing the sheets or the small things, helping you prepare for your next day. That's going to help alleviate stress for the other person.

Yeah.

And you also feel that's part of your purpose as well is helping the people around you to be able to manage their stress and be able to perform at their best. So it's kind of a nice virtual cycle that happens where it works well. But it takes intentionality, as you've been saying.

It takes intentionality. And it's like a little bit of work in and of itself, right? I mean, not even a little bit, a lot bit. It's work in and of itself. But all of those little things add up. They really matter.

How about for you, Kellie?

As you were talking, it made me think about my team at MeckEd. And one of the things I tell them is that you manage things and you lead people. And so being aware of their stress levels as well. If you see it-- or making sure that they know, again, I am a new CEO. I've only been there since August the 1st. So we are learning each other.

And making sure they know it's OK for you to set boundaries. If I send you an email at 10 o'clock at night, it's because of my schedule. I don't expect you to answer at 10 o'clock at night. Or to say to them, hey, isn't it your birthday or isn't it something going on at home? You take care of that.

Or encouraging them to work from home if they need to. Trying to create space for them to breathe. To breathe and just being aware of other people as well. Because I have learned. I've had the benefit of years to learn about self care.

Yeah.

I have no problem saying I have a therapist and she is fabulous. And if I need to go see her, I will go see her. And I encourage everybody to if not a therapist, have someone that they can talk to about what's going on with them.

And if self care looks like getting your nails and hair done, if self care looks like going to a game, if self care looks like spending time with your family, do that and be intentional about it. And one, you know, something always suffers when you make time for the other. But you have to do what you need to do to make sure you're there the next day to do what you need to do so.

Yeah. Kellie and I love that you're pointing out sort of with everything you've got to make choices, right? A gain in one area is likely going to lead to a loss in one area. And having that anchor and purpose helps you tolerate that loss because the gain is more important.

So when we think about how do we really do this, right, like what are some strategies? So there are things that we all know. So we need to eat right. We need to exercise. We need to sleep well. All of that, we've got to do that. Those are basic.

That doesn't mean they're easy. So show me an adult who's got all of that mastered and we should probably give them a prize. But all of those things are really hard and they take effort, but they're doable and they're really the baseline. So we need to think, what are those physical things that we really need to do?

We need to think about time limits. So one of the things that we know is that folks-- what we tend to do is that the amount of time we set for something, we will likely fill it or maybe go over it. But the idea here is that we need to be very intentional and very self aware of how we're spending our time, what we're doing, how that makes us feel.

All of that feedback is going to point us to like, OK, what's working? What's not? And you need to set some boundaries and time limits around what's working for you, what's not. So spend less time on the stuff that's not working for you.

Now there are going to be things that we all have to do. We all got to do our taxes. I mean, there are some very special people out there who love taxes. I'm not one of them. I don't know about you guys. But like it's stuff we've got to do. We've got to do the bureaucratic paperwork of life. But if we can put time limits around that, get it done, so that we can really figure out what is best for us and what's going to really, really work.

You got to incorporate those healthy habits to deal with stress. So when we were talking earlier about the exercise, the sleep, eating well all of that is part of it. And we've got to make those habits. So when we think about eustress, right, the good kind of stress, exercising we know helps with that.

So getting a basic amount of exercise. That 20 minute walk every day. Whatever you're doing on your Peloton. Even if it's three times a week, two times a week. Having those habits that support us, that's going to keep us from tipping off the other side of that U curve and getting into that bad stress, right?

It's about habit. It's about routine. It's usually not glamorous. It's usually not very exciting. But it's really what we've got to do to manage those.

Another thing here, and Eddie you were picking up on it, is this idea of relationships. Nurturing and sustaining relationships is actually key to stress management. And let's also acknowledge that sometimes our relationships can be stressful.

Yes.

So there's a push-pull there where sometimes they're really great for us, sometimes they can cause more stress. But it's not like you can just pick it up when it's good. That's the nature of relationships. Nurturing and sustaining relationships really matters to work-life balance. And it really matters to the success of your organization.

It is very rare that we see someone who can sustain a small business for a really long period of time whose relationships are really bad. Those relationships at home and at work are key because other people help us manage our stress. In fact, we're wired this way. We've got these special cells in our brains called mirror neurons that are scanning all the time to understand how are people feeling and to regulate that.

So right now my brain, there's a part of my brain that's scanning you and saying, OK, what's Kellie feeling? How is she doing? And I'm going to match you. Because that's how we're wired. That's who we are as social animals.

So managing your own emotions helps your relationships and your relationships help you manage your own emotions. What we find often is that when small business owners and really workers of any type are really invested in their jobs, sometimes they'll let their relationships slide. I mean, this is almost a classic trope.

We see it in movies. We see it on TV shows. We read about it in books. It's there because it's real. And we've really got to manage those relationships and prioritize those relationships as part of work-life balance.

And we want to anchor in our purpose. Again, that purpose is going to be super helpful to make sure that you're making decisions, that you're pointing yourself in directions that are sustainable for you. That are life giving for you. And that makes sense for you.

Another thing about a good strong personal purpose is that it tends to be a little bit aspirational. So maybe you're not there yet. Maybe when you think of your purpose there's a little bit of like, oh, I don't know if I can quite do that. But having that is going to help you stretch into who you want to be, which is eventually going to help you manage your work and life because you're putting that effort in and you're changing and adapting as your work and life change and adapt.

OK. How do we really reduce stress by making sure that we're more in control? Eddie, I'm going to hand this to you because as an expert in small businesses, I think you've got some great information to share about how we really execute on that.

Yeah. It's a challenge. There's a lot of hats that a small business owner will wear. And will put it on themselves to wear.

Yeah.

Whereas if you happen to have a team around you or if you happen to be building a team, you have a great opportunity to be able to help grow that team and their skill set by saying, is this a task that I need to execute or is this something that I actually could defer to another member of my team to help build up their skill set, help them grow, and maybe put them on a future path to be their own small business owner someday or be their own leader or executive someday?

But it starts with them having the opportunities to take on some of those tasks. And at the same time, you're lightening the load on yourself so that you can focus on what has to be you, the strategic, the vision part of the business. The strategy of where we're going. Really nobody else can do that except you, so you need to free up that space.

Thank you both. I feel like I learned so much from chatting with you today. And Kellie, I really like how you not only focused on the relationships that you build, but in creating a safe space so that those around you feel like they can convey how they're feeling, stress that they have. But also there are resources around whether it's coaches, mentors, therapists or others, we're not born with all the skills that we need to have to do this. So it's OK to talk to experts and professionals and learn more to help us become our best.

So thank you for that. Great discussion. Bright, greatly appreciate your time today.

I'd like to conclude with a few more tips to help you lighten your load as a business owner so you can be at your best for your business, for your family, and for your community. The first tip is to prioritize. We talked about what your purpose says you should do. What is your purpose say you shouldn't do? Take a look at how you're spending your time on your business. What is critical that you should do versus what can you eliminate to free up your time?

Second, delegate. Can someone else do this task? Think of this as a potential development opportunity for your staff. Third, automate. Can you get faster or can you save some time? There are many tools that can help reduce time consuming tasks such as payroll and billing. And finally, use those outside resources. Lean on advisors and mentors to help you relook at your time, your business, and your focus.

Let's come back to Kellie and to Bright one more time. Kellie, in your experience, based on what we talked about today, what is the one thing that you found most helpful?

The one thing that I have found most helpful in managing stress?

Sure. Sure.

Well, I think the word that popped into my head was, again, being intentional. Intentional about myself. Intentional about how I use my time. Intentional about how I'm showing up. And intentional about making sure that I am checking for my team as well.

That's excellent. Bright, any other advice you'd give to Kellie or to our other business owners out there who are watching?

Well, I don't have advice. But I want to echo something that Kellie said, which I think is so important is as a leader, right, as a manager, as someone who's operating a small business, leading a team, it's also part of our responsibility to create the space for them to have work-life balance.

And we've got to create that environment for them. People are going to make the choices they make based on the environment that they're in. The more that we're creating an environment where it's safe to make good choices, the more likely good choices are to be made.

That's right.

Excellent. Excellent. Such valuable insight for everyone watching today. So thank you very much again to Bright Dickson and to Kellie Cartwright. Appreciate your insights and for sharing today.

Let's do a quick recap of our learning highlights. First, please take some time to be intentional and develop your own personal purpose statements. Next, look at yourself and your business and determine what areas you need to expand, consolidate, and possibly eliminate.

Develop a work-life balance plan. See where you can set time limits for certain things, nurture healthy habits, and take time to foster those important relationships. And finally, we invite you to use resources from Truist.

We're ready to help you manage the stress of running a business and find your work-life balance, whether that's providing help and automating payroll, or discussing financing options or managing your cash flow, or any other aspect of your business finances. We invite you to contact a local Truist branch leader or call a small business banker at the number you see on your screen. Or you can visit us at Truist.com for more information. Thank you so much for taking the time to join us. Everyone have a great day.

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