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Conventional wisdom says empathy can’t be taught, learned, or strengthened. Conventional wisdom assumes our empathy ability is relatively set in stone.

But our empathy system is complex. It’s an interesting interaction of several neurological elements working together. Part of empathy is relating to others. Part of empathy is being able to understand what others feel and think. Part of empathy is going beyond knowing, but caring and feeling.

Thankfully, the term empathy is moving beyond pseudo science and toward actual science. Thanks to fMRIs and other tools we can actually see, measure, and evaluate “empathy”.

In a previous post, I mentioned that empathy was the most important tool in a marketer’s toolkit. Not fake empathy. Not user personas. Not demographics. Not primary or secondary research. Not insights or key motivators.

Actual, real empathy.

Marketing is fun—especially digital. This industry is packed with super-talented and passionate people.

However, this fun environment—this talent and passion—creates a unique breeding ground for growing and nurturing assholes. And not your average assholes. All industries have assholes, but ours have some of the worst.

We have the marketing asshole.

Senator Elizabeth Warren recently published a piece in which she argued for the importance of equal pay. She began by saying, “I honestly can’t believe that we’re still arguing over equal pay in 2014.”

But are we really arguing about it? It seems like most people of sound mind are for equal pay, though they may disagree on how best to legislate it.

And that’s the problem. This inequality runs deep in our culture – deeper than just a male-biased culture that refuses to pay women fairly -- and the issue has proven difficult to enforce. Warren has placed a great deal of optimism in the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would make salary practices more transparent and force companies to prove that pay discrepancies are due to performance or merit and not sex.

Maybe the Act will pass and make a difference. Maybe it won’t. But there is a bigger point that many are missing:

Equal pay won’t be the most pressing issue facing women in the workplace in the coming years.

This year, we’re lucky enough to be celebrating Nebo’s 10th anniversary. Adam and I are incredibly proud, but we’re not the ones you should be congratulating.

Let me explain.

Nebo was established in 2004 as a reaction against what we saw as the marketing industry’s deepest flaws. We started by taking a human-centered approach to marketing as well as treating clients, employees, and vendors the way we’d want to be treated. Culture would be our competitive advantage. We’d prioritize long-term strategy over short-term wins.

We didn’t know if we could make it. We definitely didn’t know if our approach would resonate. But we thought we were young enough to recover if we didn’t.

Flash forward 10 years and we’ve achieved more than we ever thought we could.

As you can imagine, we do quite a bit of brand work. Frankly, it’s one of our favorite things to do. Working with new product launches or start-ups is particularly exciting. The entire world is at our fingertips. We can craft the perfect story and message to encapsulate the heart and purpose of the organization.

Even when established brands need help taking their brands in a new direction, the work is exhilarating. I don’t think there is anything more challenging or more rewarding than boiling down a company’s tools, technologies, people, and culture into a succinct, powerful story that helps them connect with customers.

Great companies have personality. They have history and stories to tell. They have unique products and services. They aspire to solve problems and serve their various market segments.

However, one thing that often gets overlooked when companies build their brand is trust.