We’ve all heard about core values and how important they are. You’ve probably even created some for your business that only you as the owner know cuz you haven’t woven them into the fabric of your company.
I was the same for a while until I realized that my life would get easier if I operated my business based on our core values and made sure they were a part of HOW we went to work every day.
Whether it’s in our marketing, sales, fulfillment or internal operations…we can move faster as a team and create better results for ourselves and our clients if we use our Core Values as operating principles.
If you believe having your team LIVE your core values are important but they’ve only collected dust until this point, give this short video a watch and let me know what you think.
Transcript / MP3
As you start to grow your agency and you bring on more people and you start to create more systems and you start to serve more clients, you’ll find that you have a tendency to do things a certain way and you create certain beliefs and principles about how you work. And typically this is when you start to see your core values really become a key thread in just how you operate your business day to day. And in a, in our private Facebook group, which uh, I’ll link below, it’s a, it’s a free community for digital agency owners that are looking to grow and scale using automation and by systemizing and adding more leverage programs. Someone asked, uh, you know, what are our, what are our core values and what are our core tenants of our coaching? And so this is going to be a two part video. The first part I wanted to kind of look at our core values as a company. And then in the next video I want to actually break down sort of our principles and how we go about coaching our clients. Cause we have some beliefs and you know, a way of coaching so to speak, that either will work really, really well for you and help you hit your goals and or just might rub you the wrong way and make us not a good fit. So in this video, let’s talk about how we operate based on, or our core values. And what I want to do is share my screen here and I’m going to go into presentation mode. So if you’re, if you’re listening here on iTunes or something, don’t worry. Uh, because I’ll just talk through each of them. So our first core value is start simple, get Ninja later. And I’m going to go through each one of these. I’ll, I’ll kind of list all seven and then I’m going to take you through each one and kind of what it means to us. So first core value is start simple, getting into later. The second one is hashtag real talk. The third is do the unsexy work. The fourth is figure it out and own it. Five is make decisions fast. Six is know where you’re going and seven is be humble. So let’s start with start simple getting into later. For each of our core values we have a kind of like a statement or a quote, um, that we kind of tied to it to kind of describe what it means. Like what is the essence of this core value. And so for us to start symbol, getting into later means done is better than perfect. Simple is better than better than complex. And we constantly seek simplicity in our businesses and our lives by asking what the simple version looks like. And this leads to faster action for us. So we always challenge each other or with is just a simple version. What would the simple version of this look like? And we actually pass this on to our clients as well. Real talk really becomes, um, we use this a lot. We actually in our group, in our coaching group internally, we will type hashtag real talk we’re having, you know, the tough love moments. But really what it means is always be real, raw, open and honest with each other and clients. It’s our responsibility to tell the truth and address the facts. When you candy coat things, you serve nobody and Rob people from their real opportunity to improve. The amount you grow is directly correlated with the amount of uncomfortable conversations you are willing to have, not buy candy coating it. The next one is do the unsexy work. The fundamentals are what make the shiny object doll. Again, I don’t know who had that quote but that it was, I saw it and I was like, this is amazing. The fundamentals are what make the shiny object Dell. Again, the difference between the successful and those that fail is that the successful never stopped doing the fundamentals, and this is something that we really preach on our clients, which is why when someone really asks what the tenants of our coaching were, I wanted to start with kind of our core values because a lot of how we coach is derived from our core values and so we’re always looking to keep things simple because complexity, you know, usually slows people down and really a lot of times we already know what to do. It’s just we have to do it and we don’t want to because it’s the unsexy work. Next is figured out. Kudos to my buddy Brian Harris over at growth tools, um, adopted this one from him. We had it in kind of another written in another way, but he convinced me to kind of re update it. So it’s figure it out. And the quote by Steve jobs that we like around this, as everything around you that you call life was made up by people who are no smarter than you and you can change it. And to me what that really means is the ability to identify and solve any problem makes you the most indispensable and valuable member of the team. And you either find a way or you make a way. So when someone comes to me in a team and like there is a problem, they come to me with a problem, but they’ve also said, Hey look, here are the top three solutions and based on X, Y, Z, here’s the one that I believe we should go with. And, or here’s the one I already went with and here are the results. Like this makes someone way more valuable than just Hey, Hey boss or Hey someone else. Or even if I went to someone and said, Hey, we got a problem. And then just kind of put all of that weight on the person. Like we need to step up both as owners and as team members, uh, make decisions fast. Um, we’ve definitely done the opposite in the past, but you know, our goal is to really make decisions and move. So speed is the number one currency in business relationships. Speed is more important than perfection. Too many opportunities are missed because a project took too long. A good plan executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week because what works now might not work next week. And the real feedback that we’re looking to get really is if it’s on the market, so be quick to move and you’ll get the feedback that you’re looking for faster. This really plays out in our coaching because a lot of times clients want to like have everything perfect and you know, wait, wait, wait until something, you know, I’m going to wait until X, Y, Z happens and then I’ll promote it or then I’ll launch it. And really all of the feedback that we need as business owners is going to come from the market. It’s not going to come from, you know, some peer groups saying, Hey, that’s cool because if they’re not your ideal ideal avatar, it’s not really going to serve you. So like you might as well just put it into the marketplace, get the real feedback that you’re looking for and move on to the next thing. The next one is own your results. Hold yourself to a higher standard than anyone else would ask of you. Manage your own time and resources and own your decisions and outcomes as if they were your company. Make decisions that can make the company better. Uh, I think we’re all leaders in our own right. You know, everyone on our team, they are leaders of their home, they’re leaders of their family. And, uh, if we don’t hold ourselves to high standards both at home and at work, uh, it’s going to be difficult to grow a company and make a company and or a home better know where you’re going in the absence. And I don’t know who, where this quote came from, actually, I couldn’t find the source. In the absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it. If what you’re doing doesn’t connect directly to one of our objectives, stop doing it. I think especially in kind of this online entrepreneurship space, there is a, you know, a big challenge of, you know, someone’s chasing the seven figure, the eight figure dream, and they’re not even tied into the reality of what, what their current situation looks like, which means they’re operating in fantasy land. To me, if you don’t know what the different steps are to get to the, if you can’t reverse engineer the steps and milestones to get to the goal, then having the goal is, is just a waste. So you need to have a goal and then reverse engineer into the mini milestones that are going to even get you to that goal. So for us, we need to know where we’re going so that we can kind of execute accordingly and be able to say, Hey, why is this project important? It has nothing to do with our objective and or get us to where we’re going. And so we’ll kill it. Last is be humble. Humility is keeping the businesses needs above your own humble people, admit their deficits and grow when making a decision. Be concerned with what is right, not who is right. A winning team comes from hiring and promoting for humility and firing for ego and pride. Sorry about that typo. But this is, I think we adopted this from a few other companies that I know that kind of shared this, but it really became something that I just added recently because it was how we showed up. Um, and I saw how our team interacted with clients and when we were going through a last phase of hiring, how we handle our hiring process. And while there were some talented people, there were also some people that had a little bit of an ego. And that’s just not how we have rolled since we’ve started. So, um, I think humility is super important. Um, uh, at least for us internally and obviously, uh, when you are a coach and you’re working with people for them to have humility, uh, and also vulnerability allows them to I think really transform where they’re at. So those are our core values. I’d love to know what your core values are. So drop in the comments below, share what your values are if you don’t have them, just maybe share what was the most impactful one that you heard from ours. And in an upcoming video I will share sort of our principles around how we coach and kind of the core tenants, so to speak, of our coaching program because that in many ways will either make you a good fit or not. And I think if you don’t have kind of core tenants and core values in your business of how you operate and what you would expect of clients, um, you might find yourself getting a lot of the wrong quality clients in your world and, and too late, right? Like you wouldn’t see it in the sales process because you hadn’t documented, you know, what are your principles and values when it comes to the type of people you work with and how you conduct business. So I hope you enjoyed this episode. Comment below with your core values and we’ll talk to you soon. Okay. Are you looking for that cool place to hang on the internet with all the people just like you? Well, I got it for you. If you want to learn the best strategies, tips, and tools to productize and automate your business, visit system dotL Y or slash community to join our free private community and continue the conversation. We’ll see you there.
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