On this episode of the Lead With Purpose podcast host, Tze Ching Yeung talks to Blaine Bartlett, a consultant who has impacted more than one million people globally about his role as a coach and motivator and how business can succeed by taking inspiration from nature.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• In nature, in my childhood, I marvel at the seasonality, the way life seems to fit together, nothing seems to go to waste, it’s utilised in some way, shape or form. Even in times of drought things still grow. From that childhood experience I started considering what is the purpose of business, so I went to study economics which is the study of scarcity. The universe is not scarce, it’s infinitely abundant, I wanted to study abundance and nature is abundant. I took the implication from that to how I run my businesses.
• There is no such thing that exists in real life as a free-market economy in the way that most people experience business. There’s restraints, guardrails, prohibitions, nature is truly the only free-market economy: When it’s left untouched it does what it’s supposed to do, which is grow and distribute goods and services for the consumption of those aspects of nature that need it.
• Compassion is predicated and organised around connection, it’s literally impossible for me to behave compassionately towards something or someone unless I feel emotionally connected to them. It informs the decisions that I make and my behaviours. This comes from being conscious that your business touches many more people than just your board and shareholders and that your decisions have ripple effects that affect more than just the bottom line.
• One of the catalysts for a move to utopia is to define in people’s minds what the purpose of a business is. It’s not to make money – that’s important to stay in business – but the purpose of business is to enhance the likelihood of thriving for the people that come in contact with my service or product.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I work with some of the largest organisations on the planet and look at how we can make them more hospitable to the human spirit.’

‘Leadership, business, enterprises all trace back to: How do we succeed? The answer to that question is: We pay attention to what nature can teach us.’

‘The container that we operate in constrains our behaviour. If we change the structure of the container it makes possible different behaviours which generate different outcomes.’

‘The problem with large enterprises is that there’s so much inertia built into the system that it’s really difficult to turn them. It is possible. It may be utopistic, but who doesn’t want to live in a utopia?’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Blaine Bartlett is President and CEO of Avatar Resources, Inc., a consulting firm he founded in 1987. He is also Founder of the Institute for Compassionate Capitalism, a Managing Director of the Global Coaching Alliance, an Adjunct Professor at China’s Beijing University, Dean of Education at the World Business Academy, and a member of the teaching faculty at the American Association for Physician Leadership.

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Email: bbartlett@avatar-resources.com
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Podcast: Soul of Business with Blaine Bartlett
TEDx: Nature as the Ultimate Business Guru

ABOUT THE HOST

Tze Ching started her entrepreneurial journey back in 2007 with the launch of a sustainable clothing & home furnishing ecommerce business. Next, she created a sustainable fashion brand.

In 2019, she launched a social enterprise to help raise awareness about the negative impact of fashion at schools & colleges. 

Through the 15-year journey, she learned so much, but easily the most meaningful lesson learned was about the importance of marketing. She now focuses on channelling those insights to help others succeed through We Disrupt Agency, a business coaching, mentoring & digital marketing company. 

Tze Ching’s mission is to create a community of global change makers and to contribute to positive change in both people & planet.

CONTACT DETAILS

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