How Hospitality Fuels Personal and Business Growth

Have you ever considered that the act of hospitality could be the key to personal and business growth? In this eye-opening episode, I sit down with Annie McCune, author of "Practicing Hospitality, the Joy and Grace of Loving Strangers," to explore how welcoming strangers into your life can revolutionize our lives and businesses. Show Notes | Transcript "A simple smile in making eye contact is just huge for the image that your business portrays. And so it ends up really helping your bottom line, because people like your business, because you have been hospitable." - Annie McCune Annie shares her journey of opening her doors to hundreds of people from around the world, challenging our preconceptions about hospitality and connection. We delve into the transformative power of embracing strangers and how it can combat the growing epidemic of loneliness in our society. Discover how true hospitality can: Enrich your personal life and create lasting memories Foster deeper connections in your community and beyond Enhance your business practices and improve customer relations Key insights include: The misconceptions about hospitality that hold us back Practical steps to overcome fear and embrace openness How hospitality principles can be applied in various industries The importance of creating a welcoming environment in the workplace Whether you're an entrepreneur looking to improve your business relationships or simply seeking to add more depth to your personal life, this conversation offers a fresh perspective on the power of connection. Prepare to be inspired to open your heart and your doors to new possibilities! Resources: Join the Soulful Women's Network Listen to interview with Philip Blackett - "Dissent with Grace: Fostering Healthy Debate" Connect with Annie McCune: Website: anniebooks.com Women in Podcasting Awards Live. Love. Engage. has been nominated for a Women in Podcasting Award in the Mindset category. Voting is open between August 1 - October 1, 2024. We'd love your vote! Go here to express your support: womeninpodcasting.net/live-love-engage Thank you! Connect with Live Love Engage: Send Gloria Grace a message ☕ Support the podcast ❤ Love this episode? Leave us a review and rating LinkedIn: Gloria Grace Rand Facebook: Gloria Grace Rand YouTube: Gloria Grace Rand TRANSCRIPT Gloria "Grace" Rand Namaste. Have you ever thought inviting strangers into your home could make your life richer and your business stronger? Well, stick around as my guest challenges everything you might think about hospitality and connection. In today's world, this conversation might just change how you view strangers and success. But before I bring her on, I'd like to welcome those of you who may be new to Live. Love. Engage. I am Grace Rand, and I help female entrepreneurs attract clients through my definition of SEO, which is to Spiritually Engage Others. And joining us today is Annie McCune. She is a connector, a lover of people, and author of “Practicing Hospitality, the joy and grace of loving Strangers.” And Annie has opened her doors to hundreds of people from all over the world, and I can't wait to hear what she has to say about this subject. So, without further ado, I'm going to bring her on, and let's see if we can add her to the stage. There she is. So welcome, Annie to live. Love. Engage. Annie McCune Hello, Gloria Grace. Gloria "Grace" Rand Well, I want to dive right in and talk about how genuine hospitality can really transform our lives and businesses because I'm very, very intrigued by this. So I'm going to give you the stage here. Annie McCune Okay, well, thank you. Well, we have just been a household of who has always opened our doors. And so it helps when you come from a family like that. I grew up next to my grandmother, cousins on the other side. The doors were always open. Lots of people in and out, friends in and out. My dad would go to the international institute in Buffalo and say, does anyone need a meal? And he'd bring people home for dinner. And not all the time, but, you know, my mother would like, okay. And, you know, so that was part of my journey when I married my husband. We also just began opening our doors. And if we had an extra room and somebody needed one, we'd invite them in. And it's. I know that brings up fear in a whole lot of people. Who are you letting in the door? And then as we went on, people would call us and say, hey, we know you take in people. We don't. What would you open your door? We have somebody from Kyrgyzstan. We have somebody from Afghanistan. We have the Polish boys choir. We've got the Scottish soccer team. We've got the Lithuanian group. And we ended up just having a lifetime of memories, of fun, of growth for us, for our kids by opening up our doors. But I don't want to scare people saying, you have to do that. But as you know, we live in an age where now that we're through the COVID pandemic. We are facing an epidemic of loneliness and isolation. And the CDC says one in three are suffering from that. The Surgeon General just wrote, like a 90 page missive on how he suffered from it and how we've got to do something about this. And people had always told me, oh, you should write a book. So we ended up moving to Atlanta. I had some time. I wrote the book, but in the middle of writing the book, I thought, I wonder if I really am practicing hospitality. What does hospitality really mean? Because I am the farthest thing from Martha Stewart, and I love Martha Stewart, and she is an inspiration to millions. And she did tell me that it's okay not to have matching placemats, which is really helpful. But I find if I look at those things, then I get scared and I don't open my door. And so when I looked at the definition of hospitality, it actually comes from a root word, philoxenia, which means loving strangers as family. And I was shocked and relieved. It's kind of what we've been doing as a family. But I also realized that the false definition as being having to entertain really well or having to have the bandwidth if somebody invites me over there, I'm going to have to invite them over. You know, the reciprocal, having to keep raising the bar is absolutely what frightens most people from opening their door in the first place. And so I really got excited about sharing just that word. Philoxenia. Let's love strangers as family. Let's get over those fears. Let's just try it. Because I have found there is so much grace, there is so much joy. It's not about the food you cook. It's not about the decor. We are made for connection, and people just want to know you care about them enough to let them in and see your vulnerable self, which in my house is also, you know, it's the messy death. It's. It's the things that look. Oh, no, I wasn't expecting it. But I'm so glad you're here. It's that kind of loving faith, you know, family, if you're. I know you've had siblings. I know some of them have passed. But, you know, if. If one of them had showed up at your door, you wouldn't say, oh, sorry, go away. You'd let them in because. Because you just showed them some love and you wanted to be with them. And that's what we're kind of missing. Gloria "Grace" Rand Well, lots of stuff is going through my head at the moment with that. I mean, starting off number one, just from when you were first talking about inviting all these people in is, I did remember that. Well, number one, when I was a kid, we hosted exchange students from Norway, which was lovely. And then when my kids were younger, we actually had an opportunity to welcome a couple young women who were from France, I believe. And so my kids got to meet other people from another culture. I like to think that planting seeds and that they have both traveled to Europe now, my kids, and have been able to meet other people. So when you were also then talking about the Martha Stewart thing and being afraid, I think also sometimes I think people get maybe stressed out, and it kind of comes to that point of, my house is a mess, or how can I invite people over or things like that. So what do you have to say with regards to that? How do you advise people who maybe, maybe who are not the best housekeepers, let's say, but they would like to entertain, but, you know, they feel, you know, kind of uncomfortable. It's not quite the word I'm looking for, but maybe, maybe embarrassed even. What would you say? Annie McCune Well, a couple things. One is that we do have to examine, why am I afraid? And, you know, is there some standard that I have artificially set in my head of the way it should be? And so many of those are just. They're just lies, you know, and you have to just say, that's not a reality. The reality is there's somebody I want to get to know, or there's somebody that needs to get to know me. And. And so we think about the people, not about us. You know, we have to get our mind off of us and know that there's just power in opening the door and connecting with people. It's the presence. It's looking them in the eye. It's saying, hey, I would love to know your story. And giving them space, giving them room, letting them see the vulnerable you. The thing is, in this day and age, there are so many good takeouts. There's people that can do the cooking, but there's not the people to sit down and break bread with, because that's what we've closed our doors to. And that is where the power and the grace and the real change, and it just comes in, and that's what we're missing. That's what we need. That's what's so beautiful. Gloria "Grace" Rand Well, let's get down to some practical things here, because what are some ways that we actually can start connecting deeply with people? And especially I also want to be able to get into, well, you know what? I'm going to do that after. Let's just start first with that,...