Love people like they are human

Hi! It’s me, Mads. Maybe some of you don’t really know who I am and that is ok! I’ve been working with IVY since last April as the Brand Strategist. Basically that just means that I focus on a lot of the “behind-the-scenes” stuff like strategy and content planning and email campaigns-and I LOVE it. I’ve gotten to travel to Tulum, meet really cool people, and improve my longboarding skills all in the time that I have been part of theIVYbrand team. But there is one thing that I have gained since becoming part of this team that I think has impacted me the most. And that is this one really important lesson: love people like they are human.

Maybe that sounds dumb or so obvious to some people but let me explain myself. I think we can all look back on our lives and remember a time that another person has hurt us. It’s human nature-to hurt and to be hurt sometimes. In a lot of ways that can connect us, we all have that in common. But usually we take that hurt and use it to create distance between us and the person who hurt us. And over time, maybe we start to create more distance from people who haven’t even hurt us, because we are afraid of the possibility of being hurt. It’s like a protection mechanism-don’t allow people in and you’ll never get hurt, right?

But I am realizing that isn’t true. Steve recently shared a Brené Brown video with me and it quite literally changed my life. Essentially what she talks about in the video is vulnerability and connection and the human tendency to avoid feeling joyful because of how vulnerable it makes us. Being hopeful or joyful leaves room for us to be disappointed. Falling in love leaves a chance for getting heartbroken. Creating deep friendships leaves space for us to be hurt.

I guess what I am trying to say is that, the goal in life is not to pad ourselves so thick that we can no longer feel. Because oftentimes, when we try to self-preserve, we end up letting really good things like joy and hope get minimized. And we create distance from friends and people, not even giving that friendship or relationship a real chance to thrive. And I just have to say (even though he probably won’t like it) Steve has been such a huge inspiration when it comes to living life unoffended. I am so inspired everyday in the way he chooses to love people, let people in and make them feel like they belong, despite their humanness. And it’s obvious in the way that he incorporates that into IVY so well. IVY has never just been a business that sells products. It’s a place that has been intentionally created for a purpose to connect us as humans and make us feel belonging. It’s important to remember that we are all humans trying to do our best, Steve (and IVY) does that better than anyone I know. So I hope that we can always remember to love people like they are human, Because, they are!