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Overview

Radical Giving: The Secret To Life. When you inject generosity into a company it will flourish as well as the people, and Mike has witnessed that in action at Simple Modern. Tune in to hear how they have fostered holistic generosity within the culture at Simple Modern - from the very beginning.

Learn

Defining radical generosity
Why we give
Holistic approach to generosity
How Simple Modern shows generosity to its stakeholders

“Generosity enlarges the future for others. When we use our time, our skills or talents to encourage and to affirm and to help other people, it enlarges their future, but it also it enlarges our future and it changes our quality of life, as well.”

— Mike Beckham, Co-Founder and CEO, Simple Modern

Episode Transcript

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Episode Highlights

Tone setting + why Simple Modern leaned further into generosity during the pandemic (0:45)
Foundational story that shaped how Mike thinks about generosity (3:45)
Generosity as a cornerstone - how Simple Modern started with the “why” and worked back to the “what” (5:00)
Four reasons why generosity is crucial (5:40)
Questions you can ask today to apply these principles (9:00)
Tips to create vibrant internal cultures through generosity(11:45)
Tips for applying generosity to external relationships (16:50)
Focus on process instead of results(18:55)
How Simple Modern stands apart with a generous spirit (22:10)
Giving without expectations of the impact + the ripple effect of generosity (27:20)
Mike Drop Moment: Generosity enlarges the future for others. (29:50)

Powerful Quotes

“We made the decision organizationally that we were going to go ahead and lean in on generosity and lean in to giving at the exact moment when when it probably felt the scariest.” -Mike

“What I'm doing through the course of my life is trying to chase whatever the best version of me. is. When I make decisions to choose generosity, especially when they're difficult, it's an antidote to my selfishness and my own self interest.” -Mike

“When you take this larger perspective that generosity is also how we use our time, how we use our talents, how we use our words, then you can start applying it today.” -Mike

“What really successful people do is they focus on the process and try and do the process as well as they can, instead of focusing on results.” -Mike

“When it comes to the way that we interact with people outside of the company, we we really try and take a relational as opposed to transactional point of view in business.” -Mike

“At our worst, we're transactional and what generosity does is it pulls us away from being transactional. It pulls us towards being relational. It pulls us towards putting the needs of others first.” -Mike

“We knew we wanted generosity to be a part of the company, before we even knew what product that we wanted to sell. We didn’t start with what we started with why.”

— Mike Beckham, Co-Founder and CEO of Simple Modern

Four reasons why generosity is crucial:

Every single person has been a beneficiary of generosity
We need it - we are all fighting a battle against our own selfishness
Life isn’t fair - we're all faced with making a decision of what we're going to do with that
It’s a clear way to make a redemptive and positive impact on the world

Questions you can ask yourself today:

What's an example of you receiving generosity in your life and how did it make a difference?
What have you been given (not just financial resources) that you can be generous with?
When you're 80, and you're looking back on your life today, what are going to be the things that matter the most to you?
- How will you think about generosity and the way that you've used the things you were entrusted with near the end of your life?
- How can you take that knowledge and apply it to how you're living today?