MIND AND BODY CONSULTANCY: PATIENTS ARE PEOPLE
The purpose-driven business series features a different Business for Good to showcase their unique giving stories. We hope these stories inspire you with interesting, new and joyful ideas on how to integrate giving into your business.
We may find it easy to give to beneficiaries and worthy causes, but what about embodying the giving and caring spirit into the people we meet everyday – our team, the people we meet, and even our clients? Today’s featured business shares about her ever-growing concept of giving.
INTRODUCING…MIND AND BODY CONSULTANCY!
WHO: Annette Tonkin from Mind and Body Consultancy
WHERE: Sydney, Australia
WHAT: Mind and Body Consultancy provides training programs for health professionals so that they can transform the way they work with even their most challenging clients so that outcomes are dramatically improved for all concerned
CAN YOU GIVE US A SENSE OF WHY YOU DECIDED TO START GIVING?
We want to make a difference beyond the scope of the training we provide. It was easier to make the commitment of donating 10% of our profit from the very beginning of the business as we are a start-up, rather than trying to implement it later on.
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE PROJECT(S) TO GIVE TO AND WHY?
Provide Rescued Animals Shelter From The Elements. We feel very strongly about providing food, shelter and care for sick or injured animals. We also support Provide Hygiene Kit To For A Girl in Kenya. It supports the role that our business has in the community in improving general health
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE IMPACT B1G1 HAS HAD ON YOUR COMPANY AND ITS CULTURE?
We love being able to choose the projects that we support. This feature empowers both us and the people we train as we give them a choice of where their 10% goes. They love this.
WHAT’S THE BEST EXPERIENCE YOU’VE HAD THROUGH YOUR GIVING ACTIVITIES AND BEING A PART OF B1G1?
Being part of the walking challenge for a week (note: B1G1 Joy of Giving Week) a couple of years ago. It motivated us to exercise more and at the same time promote what we were doing with B1G1 through social media.
DOES ANYBODY IN YOUR TEAM HAVE AN INTERESTING GIVING STORY TO SHARE?
I learnt the hard way how important it is to connect with people as human beings first before seeing them as a patient with a problem to treat.
I saw a 16-year-old boy many years ago who was referred in with lower back pain. I saw him twice over a week and did everything I could to try to help him by sorting out his back. He didn’t come in for his 3rd visit and after following him up, his mother rang 2 weeks later to say that he had committed suicide. Neither she nor his doctor knew he was suicidal and I didn’t either.
What I learned from this experience was the importance of connecting first as one human being to another, and then as a clinician to a patient.
WHAT QUESTION WOULD YOU WISH THAT WE’D ASKED AND WHAT WOULD BE YOUR ANSWER?
How do I feel when I go the page to donate? I get excited every time and would love to have the money to give more. In time, as the business grows, so will our giving.
If you have an interesting Giving Story to share, write to us at hello@b1g1.com to be included in the next feature!