
The Work Love Languages
Explicit content warning
07/11/23 • 26 min
Let’s be honest, we ALL have “internal hurdles” in our work life. Whether CEO or intern, problem-solving and effective communication can be a challenge. How can we overcome these issues...besides a weekly therapy session? Enter in: The Work Love Languages. We all know “The 5 Love Languages” to better understand your relationship and partner, but have you considered learning your work love language to understand yourself and your coworkers? Listen in as Ingrid and Orchid explore their work love language and “business astrology” results to glean insight into what they prefer in the workplace. Next, ask yourself...what’s my work love language?
Close the Loop
- {00:08:27} “How are we building {our “work love language”} into the way that we work with our teams and inform people above us, below us, and across the aisle? How do we make more of that now that we've identified that we need that?” - Ingrid
- {00:12:35} “Beyond seeing immediately what's in front of you, anticipate what are some other things that are going to happen or try to put yourself in the receiver's shoes and say, "Okay, if I were in their position...’" - Orchid
- {00:14:26} “As you go up, and whether you're the most junior person or the most senior person, I think it is always really beneficial to think about things more holistically. And I think that a quality that that really requires in a human being is empathy.” - Ingrid
- {00:19:03} “Based on my previous experiences and interactions with this person, what kind of decision are they trying to make and what kind of information can I provide them to best inform that decision?” - Orchid
- {00:22:52} “We're at this place where we need to create an environment organizationally, and we are now in the place of leadership that we can do that. And our generation is at that place of leadership that we can do that that I think will stop some of these previous stoic, unemotional, perfectionist, egotistical ways of working that I really do think is at the core of a lot of our hurdles.” - Ingrid
- {00:23:57} “A huge hurdle in the workplace today is about building relationships, is about properly communicating, and showing up prepared.” - Orchid
Associated Links:
- Follow Infinite Shelf on Instagram
- Want to hear more? Check out past episodes here
- Love your new co-host? Check her out on LinkedIn
- Check out other Future Commerce podcasts
Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!
Let’s be honest, we ALL have “internal hurdles” in our work life. Whether CEO or intern, problem-solving and effective communication can be a challenge. How can we overcome these issues...besides a weekly therapy session? Enter in: The Work Love Languages. We all know “The 5 Love Languages” to better understand your relationship and partner, but have you considered learning your work love language to understand yourself and your coworkers? Listen in as Ingrid and Orchid explore their work love language and “business astrology” results to glean insight into what they prefer in the workplace. Next, ask yourself...what’s my work love language?
Close the Loop
- {00:08:27} “How are we building {our “work love language”} into the way that we work with our teams and inform people above us, below us, and across the aisle? How do we make more of that now that we've identified that we need that?” - Ingrid
- {00:12:35} “Beyond seeing immediately what's in front of you, anticipate what are some other things that are going to happen or try to put yourself in the receiver's shoes and say, "Okay, if I were in their position...’" - Orchid
- {00:14:26} “As you go up, and whether you're the most junior person or the most senior person, I think it is always really beneficial to think about things more holistically. And I think that a quality that that really requires in a human being is empathy.” - Ingrid
- {00:19:03} “Based on my previous experiences and interactions with this person, what kind of decision are they trying to make and what kind of information can I provide them to best inform that decision?” - Orchid
- {00:22:52} “We're at this place where we need to create an environment organizationally, and we are now in the place of leadership that we can do that. And our generation is at that place of leadership that we can do that that I think will stop some of these previous stoic, unemotional, perfectionist, egotistical ways of working that I really do think is at the core of a lot of our hurdles.” - Ingrid
- {00:23:57} “A huge hurdle in the workplace today is about building relationships, is about properly communicating, and showing up prepared.” - Orchid
Associated Links:
- Follow Infinite Shelf on Instagram
- Want to hear more? Check out past episodes here
- Love your new co-host? Check her out on LinkedIn
- Check out other Future Commerce podcasts
Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!
Previous Episode

Dear Ingrid and Orchid
It’s Ask Me Anything Day here on the Pod and Orchid and Ingrid drop some great advice in today’s episode. Could Toys R Us have survived if they adapted? Is the Age of the Influencer coming to an end? Tune in to hear your questions answered and check out our Instagram @_infiniteshelf for a post-episode treat!
Get Your Sh*t Together
- {00:02:16} “A significant trend is that retailers know they have to rethink the in-store experience, but they're not quite sure how to do it. A prime example of a fail in this is Toys R Us.” - Orchid
- {00:09:32} “This is the modern iteration of what {a lifestyle brand} is: merging the in-store experience, using the retail, having online, having all of those things.” - Ingrid
- {00:12:29} “The new trend in maximizing your square footage is the services and the experience and the reason to go somewhere physically, which actually means quite the opposite of pack more sh*t in there. It actually means really, really curate things because people are completely overwhelmed with choice anyway.” - Ingrid
- {00:18:03} “I'm convinced that if you're brought into a Target and it's a pleasant experience with a Starbucks that you can get free refills on, you're going to spend more time there and increase that single transaction over going into a crowded Macy's where you can't find anything, you feel overwhelmed and then you just turn around and head out again.” - Orchid
- {00:22:10} “There is a healthy balance of a strong work ethic and knowing that you can succeed at something without putting so much pressure on yourself that you burn yourself out.” - Orchid
- {00:23:27} “There are seasons of your work life in the same way that there are seasons in every other aspect of your life.” - Ingrid
- {00:30:00} “The age of the influencer won’t end, but brands do need to activate more thoughtfully and stop spraying and praying with influencers the way that they once did with buying TV.” - Ingrid
Associated Links:
- Follow Infinite Shelf on Instagram
- Want to hear more? Check out past episodes here
- Love your new co-host? Check her out on LinkedIn
- Check out other Future Commerce podcasts
Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!
Next Episode

The Growth v. Profitability Cage Match
Get ready for an epic showdown as Ingrid and Orchid step into the ring to explore the ultimate cage match between profitability and growth! It's a no-holds-barred battle. Can both profitability and growth survive this ruthless brawl, or will one be forced to tap out?
Brace yourself for bone-crushing trade-offs and discover the true costs of mismatched contenders. This year, every move is under the spotlight; so tune in for the fight of a lifetime!
One Leg At A Time
- {00:05:36} “Profitability is like a pant leg and then growth is like the other pant leg... In order to have one, you have to pull one leg up and kind of scrunch it and pull it a little bit and then switch to the other leg and pull it up a little bit. You can’t put both legs in and jump up and pull up the pants at the same time.” - Orchid
- {00:08:36} “It was just this very rinse and repeat playbook mixed with a really low acquisition rate that really did set a lot of these companies up for success that maybe in a different environment with different circumstances wouldn't have been accomplishable, but that doesn't mean that now that things aren't wildly easy, that the business model itself doesn't make sense.” - Ingrid
- {00:11:53} “When you make that pivot from a growth to a profitability play, now you're kind of doing a wild swing of the pendulum. How you operate in that environment is also extremely, extremely different.” - Orchid
- {00:14:33} “When you're in great weather, you're going to speed it up. When you're getting to a stormy place and some macro things happen or you need to buckle up for something, you make those adjustments while you're in flight and that is real leadership. And that's the piece that we don't always look at with such a holistic lens. At every level we tend to be really, really time-bound.” - Ingrid
- {00:24:31} “When there's a huge change in media and where people are spending their time and all of that, that's going to change marketing and how we connect to the people and get the eyeballs and the attention and the specific audiences that we want. And so the two places today that I feel are "the safest place" still are actual, really, really, really good creator and influencer marketing. And the channel in which that is the least expensive today is TikTok and potentially even still YouTube.” - Ingrid
- {00:28:17} “If you are not ever in growth mode and you're always in profitability mode, that is limiting. You're never going to be able to expand outside because you're always going to be looking at things that give you a 4X ROAS or a 7X ROAS or even a 2.5X ROAS because you're playing in a really safe, shallow pool and that's okay but know what the consequences of that are.” - Ingrid
- {00:31:33} “There's a reason why marketers have cared about engagement because it signifies that you're doing something right and you just need to do more of it to that same group in different ways.” - Ingrid
Associated Links:
- Follow Infinite Shelf on Instagram
- Want to hear more? Check out past episodes here
- Love your new co-host? Check her out on LinkedIn
- Check out other Future Commerce podcasts
Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!
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