00:00:00 Sana: Let's be honest. Most companies don't fail because they lack ideas. They fail because they panic. And one of the fastest panic buttons in business sounds like this. We'd love to do the right thing, but we can't afford it. And today we are getting into the messy middle where margins feel tight, pressure feels real, and values suddenly start sounding like a luxury item.

00:00:36 Sana: Welcome back, listeners to another interesting episode on the Best Blend podcast, where we talk about the real collisions between ambition and ethics, growth and burnout, leadership, and the human cost of success. And listeners, today's topic, it's it's one that I have seen trigger defensiveness in boardrooms and guilt and founders social responsibility and profitability because in theory, values are great. Yes they are. But in reality, a client cancels. Payroll is due. Investors want numbers. A competitor undercuts you. And suddenly social responsibility starts sounding like a nice to have. But then my guest listeners today brings a perspective that not not just business. It is deeply personal. Raised as a preacher's kid, my guest grew up wrestling with the gap between the idea of a loving world and the reality of injustice, especially the oppression of women. And that tension didn't turn into cynicism. It turned into a lifelong study of healing, reprogramming, and what it looks like to build systems that don't betray people. She believes in value based business, not as a branding or a PR exercise, but as asked you a stewardship, kindness, compassion and sustainability where you don't choose between people and profits. You design for both. So if you have ever, ever felt torn between doing good and staying alive, this one's for you listeners, and let's get into the conversation and let's welcome our incredible guest, Robin Harris. Robin, welcome to this blend. And I'm really, really thankful to you for bringing this topic up.

00:02:36 Robin Harris: Thank you for having me. I'm excited to talk about this one.

00:02:41 Sana: Absolutely, absolutely. And, and you know, this is such a unique topic. I'm, if I remember, I don't remember when I have had the opportunity to talk specifically on this because, um, you know, most of the companies, I mean, it would be mostly in the laws or the company policies or something, which, uh, you know, which is connected with government. But then when you look at us, look at what exactly happens on ground. In reality, it's an altogether different picture all together, a different picture. So let's let's begin with the real reason here, Robin. Like, you know, when a company says that we can't do social responsibility and we can't and stay profitable, what do you think they actually mean? Like, um, is it a money problem or is it a systems problem?

00:03:37 Robin Harris: It's a mindset and a commitment problem. It's where the priorities see the priorities of a business may be to create profit, but in reality, the purpose of a business is to provide a service or a value that then creates profit. So imagine wanting to generate profit, but not providing any value or any service. That's a misalignment. And so I think people think social responsibility does not come back into the profits. It's it's definitely not a tangible thing. But you will see companies fade away when they lose their integrity. They're not going to stay on the playing field for very long. Eventually they will just disappear because society at some point will stop tolerating it. And for some people that's okay because and companies have to think about this. Some people want to get the fast money. So they've made their money, they take it out, they go on to the next thing. Right? And the company's longevity is compromised because they went for the short term profits. A company is not in business for short term profits. And so we have to look at not just this quarter's profits, but am I going to be around two, three years, five years from now? AM I going to have the the ethical foundation, the value to society that will allow me to sustain profitability?

00:05:55 Speaker 3: HMM.

00:05:57 Sana: You know, it makes, uh, makes actually sense. It actually makes sense. Why? Because. When a company is scared, like it doesn't become neutral. Like it becomes reactive.

00:06:15 Robin Harris: Yes.

00:06:15 Sana: And just as it is, you know, like I have had many people, uh, you know, sharing that they became reactive to life. They became reactive to their business or to their company. And reactive businesses usually don't announce that we are abandoning our values. Uh, maybe they would just label or call it as efficiency, or maybe it's temporary and then somehow it becomes the default. It becomes culture.

00:06:45 Robin Harris: Mhm. Because Sana, if you think about it, um. A company is similar to a person And you would say a company actually has a nervous system. Uh, a soul. Maybe even not not literal, but something like that. And just like when the human goes into fight, flight, or freeze, their decision making ability is compromised and they can't see the best solutions because they're in reactive mode. The same thing happens with the business. So what happens is now you're getting pressure maybe from investors or, you know, the CEO has to go in front of the board and explain why something isn't happening or what they're going to do about something, or they go before the board and they start making promises. This is a famous one, and we're in this cycle now over promising, over promising. And we are seeing this now with all the AI. And then you can't deliver the return on the investment. And now the investors are starting to say, well, wait a minute, wait a minute. When are we going to get to profitability? We're, we're sinking all of this money in. And here's where the ethics comes in and the social responsibility comes in. Being willing to destroy human value, human life, families, the future of the next generation. On a gamble. It's a gamble. Yeah. And, and so we, we're leaving the land of foundational, you know, you know, there was a time when you do a feasibility study and you say, does this investment make sense? And what are the basis, what are the facts? What are the Numbers that justify me making this investment all that's missing. This is a big gamble for society. It's not just the companies, it's society. Because when these companies, you know, when when we start talking about erasing whole jobs and industries, we're not talking about just your company, not just my company. We're talking about the impact we're going to have on society. And in my opinion, and this is my opinion, any company that is willing to destroy society for their bottom line doesn't deserve to exist. It doesn't deserve to exist because a business is supposed to bring value to the society, not cannibalize it and destroy it.

00:10:03 Sana: I really, um, it's, it's a very strong point that you put forth and, uh, I'm really curious, uh, Robin, like, you know, what's, what's the first symptom you see inside a business that's sliding into that fear mindset? Is it how they are treating their employees? Is it their pricing decisions or it's like, you know, too much of PR driven purpose or the, you know, the usual corporate language that we get to hear from the, from the leaders or people at the C-suite levels.

00:10:40 Robin Harris: I, I, I think the, um, the problem is. Uh, unrealistic expectation of sustainability. Um, So wanting to make a lot of money now. And not thinking in terms of the long term, and also not thinking in terms of what's the value and the use case for this thing I'm creating. Because it's not going to be it's not going to be. A solution. It's being sold as this is going to solve all the business problems. And you know, you won't need any employees. And, and it's kind of strange because employees are consumers.

00:11:43 Sana: Yeah, yeah.

00:11:45 Robin Harris: Employees are consumers. So this technology, the emerging technology is impressive, but it's an emerging technology. It it still has bugs in it. All the guardrails aren't there. And so when people are rushing to implement this, one of my concerns is that the bad guys are just sitting waiting because because they've already got their hooks in there, because we're bypassing the security. You know, security and compliance is where I came, where I come from in the tech industry. Um, and, and something can be sitting in your system dormant, just sitting waiting. So now imagine that you've got this one company that's pushing stuff out to all of these companies. Do you do you recall the CrowdStrike incident where one company had an oops and it affected all of these different industries? AI has the same potential, and we haven't vetted the security and the guardrails before. We're, you know, giving it our bank account numbers and our administrative, you know, and letting it make purchases on our behalf. We don't we, I can guarantee you, I can guarantee you the safety and security precautions have not been fully integrated into those systems. So the bad guys are just waiting. And we're we're starting to see. So now we're creating risk that then we're going to end up having to spend money to fix X, all because we're in a hurry. We're in a hurry.

00:13:44 Sana: Yeah.

00:13:46 Sana: And do you think is it because it's already assumed that, you know, Uh, nobody's going to question me or us because we have the money. We have the power. We have the network. We have got it all sorted out, so we don't need to worry about it.

00:14:06 Robin Harris: I, I think people have become mesmerized and I'm a certified hypnotherapist, but the hypnotic state can affect a whole society and a whole group of people and a whole culture where you go into a hypnotic state and you don't see the reality of, oh my gosh, I just shot myself in the foot. Oh my God, I built a data center. But I don't know how I'm going to get it up and running because our infrastructure doesn't support it. Those are questions that should have been answered beforehand, not after the data centers built. So we're, we're and this is a human thing. This is not to make anybody out to be a bad guy. But we're moving so fast. We're becoming mesmerized and hypnotized. It's like the siren. We're being seduced by this promise, and we're relaxing our critical thinking skills. And we're making mistakes that we wouldn't ordinarily make because fear of missing out. That's a fear.

00:15:28 Sana: Yes it is.

00:15:30 Sana: And not only, you know, and you know, as generally Gen Z popularly call it as, um, FOMO, there is fear of finding out also for, for that's something that I got to learn that yes, but it has been their fear of finding out. Fear of missing out.

00:15:51 Robin Harris: Mhm. Mhm. And and I'm going to tell you, they're going to be. I'm, I'm very, very, very excited for the small company and the medium sized company because this technology, as it becomes more stable and as we find the right places to integrate it and only integrated in the right places and do it securely and responsibly, it's going to allow those companies to compete with the big guys on a level that's never been seen before. And I don't even think the big guys are even thinking about that. Let's not tell them.

00:16:42 Sana: Shush.

00:16:43 Robin Harris: Let's keep some of these smaller companies and medium sized companies are going to be the dark horses. They're going to come out of nowhere.

00:16:52 Sana: That's true.

00:16:52 Robin Harris: But they're going to do it in a way that's smart and intelligent. And what I what I predicted, maybe I'm just hopeful that there will be a, a, a new crop of companies, smaller companies cropping up where it's small teams, they're going to have people there. It's just a small team is going to be able to a small team is going to be like David facing Goliath, right?

00:17:23 Sana: Mhm.

00:17:24 Robin Harris: But imagine all of these microbusinesses being able to come to the table, bringing their uniqueness, their, their soul, their passion, their compassion, their humanity. And their business solutions.

00:17:50 Sana: Absolutely. That's a very, very interesting. Interesting insight, Robin, because it it lights me up as well because time and again we have seen. There are always. I mean, it may take a lot of time or it may happen immediately. We cannot predict that. But something that, you know, people will say a few years after that. You know, something that Robin said, this is way she was way ahead of her time. But this happens. Time and again, there are companies, there are people. There are a group of people. There are occurrences. Events which will defy the existing course of events or actions or the way of working. Way of living. Way of thinking.

00:18:41 Robin Harris: Mhm. I want to paint another picture. It just came to my mind. Imagine a family because you can get into this. We're now at a bit at a time where you can get in, and it's not a huge investment, but you need to bring some skills and understanding to the table. But imagine a family where you've got people that have serious business skills, and they have younger people who really have taken the time to adapt and learn the technology, and they understand the security. Imagine a group of family and friends coming together and pooling their individual assets. And I'm talking about their intelligence, human intelligence. I don't consider artificial intelligence as intelligent. Intelligence to me is a divine faculty, and we don't even know what it is in human because it's unfathomable. We haven't even dipped our toe in it. But imagine a group coming together and bringing their, their, their skills to create something, and they're able to leverage this technology to play at a level that never, ever would have been possible before.

00:20:14 Sana: It's not a.

00:20:14 Sana: Difficult one to imagine, Robin. It's not a difficult one. And, um. Yeah. Makes sense.

00:20:22 Sana: Makes sense.

00:20:23 Robin Harris: Uh, we've gotta get past the chaos of it and pass this over. Marketing and hyping and the. Greed based gamble. It's. It's like people in Las Vegas. Putting up their house on a chance that they can, you know, win a billion dollars or something. It's it's gambling and it's it's it's not good business sense.

00:20:58 Sana: Nope.

00:21:00 Robin Harris: Once we get past that and we find out, oh, this is what this tool is really good for, and this is where it shines and this is where we need to not bring it into the mix. And this is where people can leverage it. And this is where the tedious stuff that humans don't even like to do, want to do and aren't good at it can do when we figure that out. I think we're going to see some amazing businesses come on online.

00:21:32 Sana: Absolutely.

00:21:35 Sana: Wow. This was such, such a unique, unique take unique conversation on Robin? Um, I mean, I really, really felt refreshing because, uh, often, you know, business people think only about money numbers, selling, sales, marketing, this and that. But then it's at the end of all of it. It's all about humans. Business are run by humans.

00:22:09 Sana: Yes.

00:22:10 Sana: I mean.

00:22:11 Robin Harris: Humans are consumers. Yes. Even when you go B to B, you're not you're not selling to an LLC, you're selling to another human.

00:22:22 Sana: Exactly.

00:22:24 Robin Harris: Yeah.

00:22:26 Sana: Super Robin. I'm very sure listeners, um, would have so many thoughts, maybe their own opinions, maybe their own, you know, analysis of all this and they would love to share with you, um, if they would like to reach out to you, connect with you. What would be the best possible way?

00:22:45 Robin Harris: I have a resource called Climb the Right Mountain and you can access it. And you can access me at climb right mountain dot com. And if you email me, I will respond back. There won't be an auto responder or some AI tool responding back. It will be a human being. Yeah. And, um, the resource is about looking at making sure you're climbing the mountain that's right for you. We're not all meant to do the same thing. We're not all meant to play in the same pond. We're not all meant to, you know, um, provide the same services and products. So we want to find the place where our uniqueness can shine and where it can be optimized and maximized for social impact and profits. Climb right mountain dot com.

00:24:01 Sana: Amazing listeners. As I always do, I'll have all the links mentioned in the show notes, so find them attached along with this episode. Feel free to connect with Robin and, um, and goodness, uh, listeners, this was such, such a unique, unique conversation on this blend. This is, were exactly what I feel. And it's, it's simple, it may not be easy, but when a company believes it cannot create both social responsibility and And profitability. It usually means that the system is strained and the identity is being tested because values aren't proven when things are good and calm. They're proven when it would be cheaper not to have them. So if you are listening and you are in that squeeze right now trying to do right by people while keeping the lights on, I hope you heard this. You don't need to be perfect to be responsible, but you need to be honest. And you do need to design your business like humans will live inside it, not AI, because they will. And Robin, thank you once again. Thank you so much. This was really, really enlightening.

00:25:22 Robin Harris: Thank you. Sana.

00:25:25 Sana: Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode. Until next time. This is biz blend with Sana and, um, take care and I'll catch you in the next episode. Thank you.