Ever since I realized it was World Kindness Day, I started looking for opportunities to be kind to people. More than usual. Ironically they both ended up being acts of business kindness.

(1) A guy at The Gathering Spot was desperately looking for anyone who might have any kind of communications / English background. What he was really looking for was someone in marketing to help him look over a last minute brochure he had a graphic artist to create. Spent 5 minutes of my time with him and he left with some very critical basic changes that needed to be made (spelling, messaging, white space, a call to action) that he otherwise wouldn’t have known about. That could’ve cost him some business!

(2) A very young brother stopped me on my way out wanting advice and ultimately mentorship on a little screen printing / T-shirt business he has. Another 5 minutes of conversation – I can already tell exactly the kind of help he needs and who to connect him with. He said – “are you really going to help me or are you just BS’ing me like people in the South seem to do?” He’s new here from New York. I looked at him and saw someone who could be a very young little brother. Desperate to know how to make it. So very eager to learn how everything works. Looked him dead in the eye and said “I wouldn’t tell you I would if I didn’t mean it.”

I’m no super business hero but I do know what I know. Something you know can help someone else just a little bit further along their journey. And sometimes it’s simply taking the time to listen and offer our help where we can. We should have more of these world kindness days.

Andrea D. Smith, The ADS Agency