Empathy First
Empathy First, is a certified Brisbane social enterprise, committed to supporting leaders and future leaders cultivate happier, healthier, and more sustainable workplaces and communities.
Hear from Leanne Butterworth, Empathy Speaker & Educator, University Lecturer and Mental Health Advocate.
What inspired you to start your social enterprise, and what specific social or environmental issue are you addressing?
Empathy First is addressing disconnection at work, at home and in the community by teaching people how to practice and communicate with healthy empathy. We make healthy empathy accessible through memorable, engaging empathy training. My own personal experience of late-diagnosed post natal depression, exacerbated by a lack of empathy, combined with my education and experience in social enterprise and mental health drives me to share the message of the life-saving power of healthy empathy.
What have been the biggest challenges you've faced in building/scaling your social enterprise, and how have you overcome them?
I have the double challenge of becoming known as a business but also in Australia empathy, especially healthy empathy, is not a concept that is widely discussed or understood. My response is to get out there. I wrote a book chapter in the upcoming anthology ‘Women Making a Difference’, I did a TEDx talk in 2022 on the topic of Healthy Empathy and I have as many conversations as I can about the power of healthy empathy across a variety of sectors and channels.
Empathy First is addressing disconnection at work, at home and in the community by teaching people how to practice and communicate with healthy empathy.
| Leanne Butterworth
How do you measure and assess the impact of your social enterprise, and what outcomes are you most proud of achieving so far?
We know the power of feeling heard, valued, visible and safe and we’ve seen first hand how transformative this can be. We’ve seen individual relationships flourish as people become more accepting and empathetic and we’ve seen teams transform to become more cohesive, productive and engaged.
Looking ahead, what are your aspirations and goals for the future of your business?
To continue to promote the conversation and skills of healthy empathy in businesses and communities across Australia. There is still so much work to be done.
What advice would you give aspiring impact entrepreneurs considering launching their own ventures to address social or environmental issues?
Understand and develop your empathetic theory of change. Take an empathetic, inclusive and evidence-based approach to your beneficiaries and team and dig deep into the problem you are trying to solve and why it exists. Extend this to your team and customers also. Oftentimes we work with organisations that are missing this empathetic, human centred approach at the outset which means they lose focus, lose people and miss vital opportunities.