Episode 483: Where's the humanity in your business?
As technology reshapes how we do business, it’s easy to forget that real connections are what truly make a brand stand out. In episode 483 of My Daily Business Podcast, Fiona Killackey shares why it’s crucial to keep humanity at the heart of your business—especially as AI and automation become more commonplace.
Fiona gives practical tips on how to humanize your brand, whether you’re a local retailer or running an online business. From personal touches to building community, she offers five simple strategies to help you nurture deeper relationships and make your business feel more personal.
Here’s what Fiona covers in this episode:
Why face-to-face interactions still matter, even in a digital-first world
How authenticity can help you build stronger connections with your audience
The power of small gestures—like sending personalized notes or celebrating client milestones
Why creating spaces for your customers to connect is essential for loyalty
How adding personality to your content can set you apart from the competition
Connect and get in touch with My Daily Business
Your one-stop destination for premium business tools and resources
Do you love your life as a small business owner?
Let's be real.
Sometimes we just don't. It's my hope that this, the My Daily Business Podcast, helps you regain a little of that lost love through practical, actionable tips, tools and tactics, interviews with creative and curious small business owners, and in depth coaching episodes with me, your host, Fiona Kalaky. With more than 20 years experience in marketing, brand content and systems and having now helped thousands of small business owners, I know what it takes to build.
A business that you can be proud of and that actually aligns with your values, your beliefs, and your hopes for the future. So much of our daily life is spent working on and in the businesses and the brands that we are creating, and so it makes sense to actually love what you do.
So let's get into this podcast and help you figure out how to love your business and your life.
Hello and welcome to episode 483 of the MyDaily Business Podcast. Today, it's a quick tip episode, and this is one that is needed more than ever, so stick around for it.
First up, I want to let you know that Group Coaching is open. You can head on over to mydailybusiness.com/groupcoaching and apply for our next intake, which kicks off in March 2025. If you're listening at any other time, we often have it kicking off twice a year, and you could apply then, or you can just join the waitlist if it's in between those times.
But if you are listening in real time, I'd love for you to join me for the next intake of Group Coaching. It's one of my favourite things to run. I love seeing people go from strangers to, you know, good friends. I've had people actually create products together after this, and I've had people go on holidays together. I mean, it's insane. So, I'm not insane, it's actually amazing and incredible, and I know myself, I've been in group coaching programmes and made lifelong friends. One of which I flew to Mallorca last year to see and meet in real life.
So, it absolutely can be an incredible thing for your business, both from a professional standpoint but also a personal one. If you want to join that, the application form is just at mydailybusiness.com/groupcoaching.
Before we get stuck into this quick tip, I want to, of course, acknowledge where I'm coming from and acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of these lands. And for me in North Warrnambool, that's the Wurundjeri and Woiwurrung people of the Kulin nation. So, I pay my respects to their elders, past and present, and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded.
Alright, let's get into today's quick tip episode.
Okay, so I am all about AI. I love and embrace AI and its capabilities. We even have an AI chat group, and you can join that anytime. It's a bunch of small business owners coming together in a safe environment to chat all things AI—the good, the bad, the ethical, all the things. You can join that anytime at mydailybusiness.com/aichat, all one word: A-I-C-H-A-T.
It's a really minimal, affordable fee. And we also have a WhatsApp group chat in between the monthly sessions. The monthly sessions are also recorded, and you get the recording plus a transcript and, you know, links to anything that we mentioned in there as well. Again, that's just at mydailybusiness.com/aichat.
But what I want to say is that I also fully understand how scary AI is and the way that, you know, potentially it can and may well damage a lot of the connection and the humanity that exists currently. I am in my 40s. I grew up in the 80s and 90s, so I definitely grew up without the Internet, without phones.
Sometimes when I'm talking to my son, who's 12, I just am like, "Oh my God, I must sound so old to you." He must think, "I remember when my parents used to talk about the olden days." I used to fully imagine that it was in sepia, like, that they somehow lived in black and white or sepia tone, and that it wasn't even like a colour world. This is when I was a young kid. But I think my son must think that too. Like, what? I don’t know if he could even comprehend what life must have been like without the Internet.
So, I'm saying all of this because I fully understand how much AI is just a mind-blowing sort of element of life that is just going to get more and more entwined with our normal daily existence. It already is in so many instances.
But I wanted to talk about today, because of the rise of AI, where is the humanity in your business? Because a lot of the time—and I'm totally guilty of this, and I put my hand up—I actually enjoy part of it as well. I'm looking for solutions. I'm looking for AI solutions, I'm looking for systems and processes, I'm looking for efficiency. All that, but also, you want to be able to think about in your business, where are the opportunities for humanity to flourish? Where are the opportunities for genuine human connection?
And so we need that, we will need that more and more than ever. I was watching something the other day, it was like a meme, and it had children playing in a playground. It showed children in the 1980s just playing with no parents around, nothing like that, just free to do whatever. Then it was like the 90s, and then the early 2000s, and then, like, every 10 years, and then it showed currently. And it was just a bunch of kids on their phones, looking at their phone and not playing with each other.
And I know that's a huge generalisation, but it's scary to look at that and go, "Oh my God." And the same can be happening in business. I mean, you look at, like, I don't know, let's say the 1980s again. Shops were shut! Like when I was growing up, shops—oh my God, I sound so old—when I was growing up, shops weren't even open on a Sunday. And I think a lot of the time maybe then, they opened from like 9 till 12 o'clock on a Sunday. But a lot of my childhood, shops were closed on a Sunday. A Sunday was like for family time. It was like riding your bikes around and going for Sunday walks and stuff.
And then I remember when they opened, but then they would shut at like 12 o'clock on a Sunday. And my sister has lived in the country for like 30 years, and I remember going to little country towns and thinking, "Oh, that's so quaint. They don't have shops open after 12 on a Sunday. Wow, are we in the 1980s or 90s?" But it's a nice thing. It's like, "Oh, okay, we don't have to constantly be doing it."
But even back then, at least you would know the shopkeeper and you would know the local person that did XYZ. And then more and more and more, so many businesses are online, like my business, and so much is happening behind closed doors.
And so, I wanted to talk about in today's episode, key ways to bring humanity into your business. So, there's going to be about, I don't know, let's say five ways that I think you can bring humanity into your business without running like giant conferences or anything else.
The first is in-person connection. And that sounds so simple, but really thinking about creating physical meetup opportunities. That could be hosting events—not necessarily a giant workshop, but just an event like a dinner or a smaller workshop, or thinking about, like, if you do Zoom meetings. And I do a lot of Zoom meetings. And so, I'm thinking about this, I'm thinking like, okay, well, what's possible to potentially take some of those Zoom meetings offline? Like, actually, you know, meet up, go and get coffee together.
The thing that can happen sometimes with that is that you've also got to account for like the time involved, but thinking about how can this happen? So, I know with my strategy clients, who are people who do like 12 months with me, and we do usually like two workshops throughout the year as well with them and their teams, I will have like a strategy dinner and I'll bring together some of the clients who do the full year of strategy stuff and we'll have a dinner together.
And it's so lovely for them to meet each other, for them to create these connections, but also to have that time with them and just chat and chat and chat. And often what I've found is even if I'm working with somebody for like a year, when we meet up in person, so much more comes up because, I don't know, you're just talking more, you're more, I don't know, somehow connected. All of that, you know, nonverbal kind of communication is happening. I mean, it happens on Zoom as well.
But the first is really, yeah, that in-person connection. Thinking about, how could I meet up in person with the people that I work with? And let's say you run a shop, it could be cool, but I'm always kind of quickly behind the shop counter. So, maybe it's like, okay, I'm going to invite my top-tier VIP customers to a dinner in the shop or to a night where, you know, we're going to talk about style or we're going to talk about something else that's to do with what you actually sell. If you sell books, maybe it's going to be a night with an offer or a book club that you set up. You know, how can you create these in-person connections?
The second point is really looking at personal touch communication. So, I do a lot of this. I send a lot of voice notes instead of text. I have since the minute that Instagram allowed voice notes. I've always done that. I also send them through WhatsApp. I also send them through text messages—like, as in Apple iMessage—also recording things like video messages.
So we're looking at this with our onboarding, and I've helped a bunch of clients do this as well. When people sign up, there's actually a video message that comes rather than just a text-based email response. Also things like handwritten cards or notes. I often send little gifts at the end of the year to clients, and it's always lovely to get like a text saying, "Oh my goodness, it was so nice to get, you know, this handwritten card from you and a little gift or whatever."
I had beautiful handwritten Christmas cards that came this year from, I mean, every year they come. Just recently, I had one that comes to mind from one of my clients, and it was just so beautiful to read. And those things really, really are things that you want to keep because they have that handwritten, that human element.
Another point, I guess point three, we've done in-person connections and then the personal touch communications. The third thing that you can do to humanize your business is thoughtful gestures. You know, it could be things like sending a relevant book to a client or to a customer. It could be remembering and acknowledging birthdays. And one tip for you if you're going to do this is if you're onboarding new clients or getting customers into your customer database, instead of asking for a birthday—because a lot of people don't want to share their birthdays—is to ask for your star sign. And then you know, roughly within, say, like my star sign is Cancer, so between the 22nd of June and the 22nd of July, roughly, I have a birthday within there.
So you could ask for star signs instead of birthdates, and then you know within that time that you might want to send a little, like beautiful note or a handwritten card or something else. Also, like celebrating client milestones, if you are an interior designer, it's a long time for people to work with you until the finished product. But what are the little milestones in between? If you're an architect, if you're a lawyer, you know, are there different milestones that you can celebrate with, especially long-term clients?
The fourth way that you can do this is to create content with personality. So, I have had this podcast now for four years. A lot of people feel like they know me.
I've had people say, "Oh my God, I feel like you're like our friend because you're constantly in the car with us." And I feel like I'm constantly like, "Oh, Fiona said this" or "Fiona said that" to my husband.
And that's so lovely to hear because a lot of, I know that I listen to podcasts and I feel like I know that person and I know their humor and I know their jokes, and so it's a way to share your voice and more and more, your video content as well.
Which brings me to, you know, creating authentic video content. To create things where you're not afraid to show up and just not be perfectly polished or make a mistake or laugh or anything else. I had somebody once who said, "I just love how normal you are." And I was like, "Oh, that's lovely." And they said, "Oh my God, I hope I haven't offended you. But you're just normal. You're not showing up with like perfectly, you know, made up face and your hair all perfect all the time." And I'm like, "Nope, that's me. I don't wear a whole bunch of makeup."
So, you know, and there's people who absolutely do show up with beautifully perfect makeup, and that's them. And that's cool too.
So, that it can also be authentic. But figuring out how do you show up just authentically without overproducing things.
Also, things like showing behind the scenes. Like I have shown often when I'm not—often, I have to say I'm okay at it because usually I press pause—but I have shown myself recording this podcast where I will make a blooper or I'll be like, "And then go to mydailybusiness.com." Like, "Oh God, what am I saying?" And then I'll show that, I'll show that behind the scenes because it happens.
Anyone who records a podcast will have bloopers in there. And so thinking, how can you create that content with personality? Because that stuff that an AI bot is not going to create because they are trying to create quality content or good—not always quality—but, you know, content that's polished in a way. They're not going to necessarily have all these bloopers in it. I guess you could put in, "Can you please create bloopers?"
But that would be inauthentic.
So that's point four: content with personality. And then I guess the last one is relationship building.
You know, really build those relationships. An AI chatbot, yes, it can build somewhat of a relationship at this current state, but it's not the same as somebody calling you, their voice being, you know, actually meeting in person even more. But just regular check-ins without an agenda. You know, you don't want to be that person that, "Oh, I only hear from them when they want something." But there's regular check-ins.
I have so many clients that I've had for years. I've had clients, you know, who maybe did coaching in 2016 and we're still connected and we still send each other little DMs or messages, and I have no, you know, yes, if they come back to coaching, great, but I'm not like in there going, "Oh, I'm going to send them this, and strategically they'll come back." It's just being human and just that regular check-ins without an agenda.
Same with if you've got an e-commerce store, like how can you just be like, "Hey, let's just check in. I know you're one of our valued customers. Is there anything we could do better? Is there anything you'd like to know from us?" Just having that check-in that is not about selling something all the time.
Another part of that is creating community spaces. Like can you create a community space? This year, we're looking at potentially, I don't know if I should even say this, but potentially—no, I'm not going to actually say it yet, but potentially some places and situations and events where the community can come together from this podcast. So that's exciting.
Make sure you're subscribed to our email, actually, because you'll be the first people to know. You can subscribe to the Sunday email at mydailybusiness.com/subscribe. And then like I said before, facilitating connection. I often will connect some of my clients with each other and be like, "I think you guys would get on really well," or "You guys are very interested in the same thing. Do you mind if I introduce you over email together?" I do that all the time.
And so we have an upcoming episode actually on loneliness and friendships, and it's something that I've mentioned in there as well. So, make sure you hit subscribe to the podcast so you actually get that next one that comes out, I think next week. But that facilitating these connections, it could be between your customers. Maybe you've got two interior designers who are constantly coming into your homeware shop and buying sort of similar stuff, and you're like, "Hey, I don't know if you know each other, but maybe you guys can connect and maybe even like the three of us can go out for coffee or come into the shop or, you know, let's have a chat."
Connect, connect, connect people. Because that can be an incredible thing for you just as a human to do because it's a good thing, but also for your business.
So I guess just a reminder, as we close up, that like small gestures matter. Small things add up. You know, people will often say to me, "Oh my goodness, I remember when you did this and it was so sweet," or "I remember when you, you know, sent me that and actually it really changed my mind about this part of my business and it's actually grown heaps," or, you know, like that matters. People remember that stuff.
So really, I'd encourage you to, with these five points that I've mentioned—and I'll just recap: in-person connections, personal touch communication, thoughtful gestures, content with personality, and relationship building—maybe just choose one of them and be like, "Okay, for the next quarter, I'm going to focus on that.
So, I'm going to focus on content with personality. I'm going to focus on facilitating connections between people that I know within the business or, you know, that come in to interact with the business."
Just choose one, one human touch point and focus in on that. And the biggest thing is just be authentic.
You know, be authentic. Emphasise authenticity over perfection. Like, we're not perfect people.
We are not perfect. We're not AI chat bots.
We are real humans that can stuff up and make mistakes and not be polished and, you know, have messy hair and all the things. So just be authentic. I think that's what people are looking for more than ever, especially as we get into more and more and more and more people using content that they haven't input any of their personal stuff, so it just sounds very generic.
So yeah, I guess the more AI advances, the more valuable and wanted genuine human connection becomes in business. So think about that and think about how are you going to add that into your mix.
So that is it for today's Quick Tip episode, which actually is not that quick. It's definitely gone over like the mark, but I hope it's helpful nonetheless.
You can find the text format of this, including links to anything I mentioned, over at mydailybusiness.com/podcast483.
And if you found this useful, please, please share it with a friend. And even more, I would so appreciate if you could leave a review on Apple or Spotify or Google Play or Amazon Music or anywhere that you listen to this. It really helps other people find this podcast.
Thank you so much for listening. I'll see you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to the My Daily Business Podcast for a range of tools to help you grow and start your business, including coaching programmes, courses and templates. Cheque out our shop at mydailybusiness.com and if you want to get in touch, you can do that by email at hello@mydailybusiness.com or you can hit us up on Instagram at mydailybusiness_. You can find us on TikTok at mydailybusiness or find me Fiona Killackey on LinkedIn. I look forward to connecting.
