Duke of Digital
Duke of Digital
034 - Creating a Business Vision and Why It Matters with Julian Mirza
You need to have a vision, but you also need a mission. Raise your pinkies because today we’re talking about creating a business vision.
Brian Meert
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Duke of Digital
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You need to have a vision, but you also need a mission. Wait, there's two of these. What's the difference? Stick around because today we're going to be discussing everything you need to know about both
Speaker 2:presented by advertisement. The juke of digital will guide you through the rapidly changing landscape of digital marketing, social media, and how to grow your business online. To submit a question for the show, text(323) 821-2044 or visit Duke of digital.com if you need an expert to fix your ads, the friendly team at advertisement is ready to help visit advertisement. That's M I N t.com or call(844) 236-4686 to grow your business. Here's your host, Brian Mitt.
Speaker 1:All right, I'm excited to announce this studio today. We have Julianne MIRSA. Yeah, thanks for having me. It's glad to. I'm glad to have you here. Um, this is exciting for me because you know, you are, there's a couple of things. You're, you're the employee development advisor, uh, for a large utility company in Southern California. You've got your degree in sociology, human BA behavior, you did your masters in leadership and management. Uh, you've been promoted multiple times. You manage a large team, you've transitioned people, um, during a department closure, which I can imagine is extremely difficult to be able to navigate that type of a situation. Um, and is this true you recently gave your first presentation to over a hundred people? I did. Yeah. Yeah. Were you nervous? I was very nervous. Can sleep a few days before, uh, very hard to breathe. Especially when you get up there in front of everybody and all the lights are shining on you and everyone's staring at you like, who's this guy and what is he going to say and why is he important? Why should I listen to him? All of these thoughts go in your head and, uh, to be able to do that successfully and, and, and get a round of applause and make an impact on folks, especially when they come up to you afterwards. You know, thank you for that. I needed to hear that right now. Um, really makes you feel like you did something great. Yeah, I always get nervous right before any talk, even if it's like 10 people, I'm just like, Oh, do I know? I'm going to say, do I have everything lined up? And the minute I start talking it goes away. And then I'm just in a zone and having fun and people are laughing. But every single time I've never, I think ever given a speech where I wasn't a, you get those little butterflies before you started talking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We were talking before the show. I was telling you that, you know, I do a lot of facilitating, a lot of facilitating of training and a lot of talking, a lot of exercises, a lot of working with folks. And usually 10, 15 minutes before I have to get all those nerves out, I have to either take a walk around the office, do some breathing exercises, uh, do a little bit of tongue twisters, uh, just to get ready and affirmed those feelings. You know, it's okay to be nervous. Um, you're here to do something. You're here to do something that you're good at and these people came to you. So
Speaker 3:it's okay to be nervous.
Speaker 1:I love it. And the fact that you said people came up afterwards like you, I imagine. So here's the backstory is Julia and I, we are, is it a cousins in law? Is that right? I[inaudible] we can just be brothers. We got brothers. That's, that's easiest one. So I married his cousin. Um, and you know, it's just crazy cause the times that we've hung out, um, you know, there's a bunch of things that you, you're big into mu Tai Moitai and jujitsu and like you post all these videos, you're like, yeah, I just did a competition. It was hundreds of people in it. I got second place or like, I'm like, man, this is crazy. It's like the MMA stuff that you do, you always shrug it off. Like it's no big deal. If I was to go into the octagon, I would last all of maybe three seconds as I was turning runaway and the dude just, you know, drop kicks me to the back. So I'm just so impressed and you saying, ah, you know what, I was nervous. I like, I'm sure you just crushed it. Like you do everything in life. Oh, it's nerve wracking every time. That's the beauty of a martial arts takes you out of your comfort zone no matter how good you are. Which one were you? Mo? More nervous about going into an octagon to fight another dude or getting up in front of a hundred people to do a speech.
Speaker 3:You know, I haven't been in an octagon, but I've been in a[inaudible] on the jujitsu map. Um, but with that being said, what's funny is I tell people at work all the time, I've, I've been in[inaudible], I've done a jujitsu matches and being in front of people is way more nerve wracking hour. It's just, uh, you just don't know what's going to happen. You don't know what's going to happen in either event. But I feel like with Moitai in jujitsu, you, you practice more, you get uncomfortable with being uncomfortable. And I, I guess that's the lesson there is the more you practice something and the more you do it and the more you get used to being uncomfortable, the better you will get. Yeah. So, you know, being an employee development advisor, you're constantly in front of people. People look to you for advice. They want, they want you to coach them, they want you to help them. They want to know, you know, what do I need to know to get an advantage in my career? And so I think the thing that brings up the fear and nervousness and that is that it's not just you, you're now making an impact on other people. And so you don't want to be wrong and you want to lead them in the right direction. You want. You want to be able to help them so that they can be effective. And the fear is that maybe you say the wrong thing or you lead them down the wrong path and you're some how now part of that words, martial arts or jujitsu or Moitai, it's just you write it to win or to lose, you know, to make the other person tap or it's on you. There's no other people at stake. Um, so
Speaker 1:even if you do lose or you make a mistake, um, it's not impacting somebody else. Yeah. It's just on you. I love that. So I think that's where, um, I would say being in front of people is a little bit harder. Okay. I don't know if you remember this, but the first time I think it was the first time we met my wife was like, Hey, we're going to go see my cousin and uh, they're going to work out in the morning, do you want to go? And there was a couple of other family members, they came and we went to work out with you and I think it was like two hours, like a session. It was two hours. And at the end of it, like all three of us were on the ground and be like, ah. And you were like, Hey guys, what's going on? Where are you? Where are you laying down? That's when we went to go do[inaudible] my old gym. That's right. Yeah. No, that sounds, my first experience. I was like, all right, well I'm glad I'm now going to be related to him one day. That was kind of my test, right? I don't know if I, I don't think I passed it cause we were all on the ground. We finished the whole class but all three of us were there and being like, ah, it hurts everywhere. And then we went to eat food cause we were assigned to that day that you are an awesome dude because um, I ask a lot of people to come train mostly because I'm very passionate about it but just because of the benefits that come from it. And you will not get a lot of people that will say, you know what? Yeah I'll come to a two hour Moitai class with you even though I've never done it before. 99 out of a hundred people are going to say no. Yeah. So the fact that you came, Oh look at that and you endured that showed me like, Hey like this guy LA. I just hope that footage never gets out cause it wasn't pretty at all. You guys did fine. Well man, I'm, I'm, the reason why I wanted to have you on the show today is because there was a situation that happened about maybe two, three months ago when we went out to dinner. Um, and we were talking about something and I was, I don't know if I was grumbling or I was like, Aw man, you know, the R, you know, business were, we had a little issue that we were working through or something like that. And it came back where you, you know, we talk a lot about business and you were like, well, where's, uh, what's your vision? Like, what do you want to, where do you want your company to go? Like, can you tell me it? And I was like, yeah. And I started to ramble a little bit and you were like, well, do you have it written down? And I was like, yeah, well, no, it's on some sticky notes here and it's over in a Google doc over there and I know it all in my head. And you're like, no, can you show me what your, your vision is like on paper? And I was like, ah. And eventually I was like, no, I don't have it. Like dang it. Like I wanted to be like, well, I've got like 82% done. That should be a B. That'll get me by. And you were like, do you have it? Yes or no? And I was like, God, no. And that was where I was like, all right, that's it. I need to go. And we started talking about, you know, having a vision and you know, in my day, like I'm in the office sometimes 10, 12 hours a day, I'm hustling. So like I'm sitting around, but I can imagine that other people get busy and it's such an important thing. Like after we were talking about it, I was like, man, I, this is so important and I don't know how this got put off, but it does for other tasks or things that come in the way. And so that's why I wanted to have you on the show to help us work through the process of what is a business vision and what's a mission, what's the difference. Um, so I'd love to kinda hear your thoughts on, on that. Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Uh, yeah. You know, and I remember that conversation and just hearing you talk about, you know, wanting to be able to discover that and use it. Uh, that's amazing. And, and the thing that led up to that conversation I think was, I, I was, uh, talking about the number one thing that you can do on a team and that is to build trust. Um, but before you can build that trust, people need to know where are we going, why are we going there? How are we going to get there? When they can get on board with that, then you can start to build that trust on the team and those relationships. So, um, maybe another time we could talk about building trust on a team, right? Cause there's so many different strategies you can do there, but I'm talking specific to, to vision and mission statement. Um, there are different, but they kind of go together. Um, and so, you know, what really is a business vision? It's a powerful tool that you can use and you can use it for many different things and it will open up a bunch of different doors on your team. Um, essentially a business vision. It's a desired state. It's where do I want to be in five years? Where do we want this company to go? What is it that we want to do? And then it addresses how are we going to get there? And really what it is, imagine you're going on a long journey through a forest. Maybe you're going to do the Pacific crest trail or you're going to do, um, you're going to find your way to another state or something like that, right? Yup. You would want to have some tools with you on that journey. Um, and you're gonna want to have a compass, especially if you don't have a phone. Maybe you don't have GPS signal, right? You want to know where you're going. You got to have a compass. And when things get hard, when the terrain gets Rocky, when you're somewhere and you don't know how you're going to get past this next obstacle, you can always look at that compass and say, am I going in the right direction? And as long as I'm going in the right direction, no matter what I'm going through, I know I'm going to get there eventually. Yeah. And so essentially that's what the vision can do is it gives your business, your team, yourself, everyone involved, your customers. It gives everyone a direction of where this company, where these people, where they are going. It's the desired state. It's where do we want to be in 10 years? What does our company want to do? Um, it's also a mental image and it's something that shouldn't just be put on paper and then it dies. It's something that you have to keep alive and you have to integrate it into every aspect of your business. And we'll talk a little bit about that later when we address, you know, so, so how can I use it? How can I bring it to life? Um, and it also ties your, your goals and your aspirations. Um,
Speaker 1:I mean it's, it feels like, you know, one of the elements happens a lot in business, especially now with digital business, right? Is things can change or, um, pivot on a moment's notice of you. You're like, I've got a business, it's exactly what I'm doing. And then, you know, Warren Buffett's son or one of the Google guys is like, Hey, we're going to go into that exact area and we've got billions of dollars and you don't. Um, and that can immediately mean you've got to change or shift or adapt or things change. Um, which I would call like an audible, right? Like, and so I think if you know where you're headed in what direction, there are numerous ways of how you can shift and it's still okay. It's not, it's not the end of the world if you're like, I was doing one thing and I, I changed and now I'm doing nothing. In fact, most of the most successful companies a lot of times have made pivots or called the audibles, but they still knew kind of the direction that their Netflix would be a great example. You know, I used to all be DVDs and they're like, we're going, we were still in, you know, providing entertainment to people, but we're going to turn everything to streaming. Um, and they, you know, they dodged a huge bullet that blockbuster didn't. Um, and it's just, it's crazy to think, but they had that vision to where they wanted to go. Yeah. And I think,
Speaker 3:you know, there's two different things going on there. One is being able to, uh, predict and adapt to change, which every business needs to know how to do. The second thing that's going on there is these companies, these very successful companies, they are very transparent on why, why are we doing this? So, um, I don't know what the vision and mission of Netflix is. Um, but why are they delivering this content? Right? And depending on how the environment might change, whether it's going from mailing your DVD to you to streaming everything, um, that why is still there.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Now I've heard this a lot of times when I've talked with other business owners is I'm like, what's your why? And they're like, to make money, which I feel like is the worst answer you can give to that. But there's like the honesty behind it where they're like, well, yeah, we're, we're doing it to make money so we don't have jobs. And what would be your response kind of to that if, I mean, if that's a, the company's, why does that make people want to believe in it? Or is that like the worst kind of response where they're like, we're just numbers and stats and who cares? Well, I think
Speaker 3:bottom line, in order for business to survive, you need to have profit to grow, to, to gather more resources, to attract talent. Things like this to be successful, of course you need that profit. But, um, keeping your eye on profit is very short term thinking. Um, you see a lot of successful companies, they have a longterm approach. What do they want to be longterm? What's the longterm vision, the long term goals. And I think having that longterm approach, investing in those little things, um, can help you see the bigger picture. Yeah. As opposed to getting a quick win, right? We, we, we like the idea of um, getting something. Now we live in a society where I want it now. I want to download it now I have to have it now. Why can't it come to my door today when I order it type of deal. And you see a lot of businesses catering to that. So, uh, there's no, you know, uh, surprise there that we want profit to be the same way. Um, but, and you see a lot of companies that have this longterm approach. And I think when we can see the longterm and see the big picture, I think everything else comes with it and it comes even more and even more. Great. So,
Speaker 1:all right. Now when it comes to, you know, setting up a vision or determining your vision, you know, what do, do you have like a set of rules or guidelines for what people should be doing it, you know, is it what you want to do at the end of your life? Is it what you want the company to last for 500,000 years or is it something that's like, Hey, you know, we want to make it to, you know, the, you know, the end of the year. Like what would be our vision for that? Like how do you determine what is right and what should be big enough for someone or when they are setting their, their vision.
Speaker 3:So, uh, I'll address a couple of things with that. And that's a really good question because, um, there really is no right or wrong answer, but what should be in there is what is the desired state? Where is it that we want to go and how are we going to get there? Um, I think when we talked before about, you know, what can I do with my team? Or what kind of questions can I ask? That's something that you should think about is, uh, why are we doing this? What is it that we want to do and how are we going to get there? Um, so I'll talk about a couple of things here. One is why is the, uh, business vision important? And one of them is because it's the compass, right? We talked about that. Yep. It's going to guide you in the right direction. Uh, no matter what you're going through. Um, not only that, it can motivate people. People want to get behind something bigger than the business. Um, something that has purpose, right? Especially today, we're seeing a lot of folks, they want to work for a company that has a purpose. Um, especially if you're looking at the millennial group, right? One of the biggest groups, uh, workforces right now are the millennials and they want to get behind something that's more than just making money. Um, it also will bring out your business values, the things that are most important to you in the company. And it also brings out the behaviors and values that you want your employees to embody. Um, and it plays a big role in developing your strategic initiatives. Where do we want to go? How are we going to get there? What projects are we going to have? And then you tie everything back to that vision and mission. And so to get back to your question about, you know, how do I develop owner? What should go into one? Um, again, there's no right or wrong answers, but there are some common things that you can have in your vision. Some things that, um, that are consistently and widely known about what goes into a vision. And I have them here on my notes. Uh, one of them is it should be very clear to the point, straight forward, what is it that you want to do, um, and, and how impactful is it? The second thing is it should be consistent. It shouldn't be something that's constantly changing, right? We've talked about Netflix, we've talked about technology in climates and things like that changing, that's fine, but what does that, that core, right? That, why that, why should still be in there, right? Netflix, we want to deliver content. How we deliver it, that might change. But what's at the heart of that is we want to deliver this content. Yup. It should be district distinguishing. Right? What makes you unique? What makes you important? Why should we get behind your product? Why should we follow you? Um, and then it's purposeful, right? It addresses the bigger picture. Yup. What are we doing here that impacts communities, impacts people, impacts the world. So those four elements, it's clear, it's consistent. It is distinguishing and it's purposeful. Got it. Um, so I have an example here. Do you know the vision of Tesla? I'd, man, I don't know. That's a good one to take a guess. Something about, uh, uh, I wouldn't be about making the world a better place. He would be about providing, I don't know, electric vehicles for everyone. So I got here for you right here. Uh, the vision of Tesla is this, it's to create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world's transition to electric vehicles. Do you think that they have done that this far? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. You look at a Tesla and you're like, wow, that is a piece of art that is a piece of work. And they make electric cars look very cool. And just by seeing what they're doing now, they are leading the way they are driving us into that future of electric cars. So a very powerful uh, vision statement. And yet it's so simple and to the point, yeah. And I'm sure it's embodied in everything that they do. Every decision that they make, every new project, every strategic initiative. Um, they tie everything back to that. I love that. I love that. I know that, um, like with Amazon, they, theirs is I think to become Earth's most customer centric company. Yeah. I actually have it right here. There's another one I got have that one. Right. So the vision for Amazon is to be the Earth's most customer centric company. Build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy. That's the one.
Speaker 1:So I went, um, and it had to be like three months ago and did a tour of an Amazon warehouse. So anyone that doesn't know you can sign up to tour the Amazon warehouses where everything is filled from. Um, when we went to one out in the inland empire and it was fascinating. I mean it's a, it's a huge warehouse, but how they, how things are organized, how things are moved. And they even told us that like this is the one that doesn't have the robots. They're like the newer ones. Those are the cool ones cause robots move everything around. And it was just crazy because everything that they've done is about how do we focus on the customer first. Everything that they've invested in. And I think when you have that, that vision, it's a top, the decisions on which way are we going to go. The compass is easy to decide. Do we make more money or ship it to a person in one day and they're like, Oh the customer would want it in one day. So that's a decision. Let's go. And it is, it's mind blowing. Cause I work with a lot of other companies that will make the exact opposite decision. Look how much we'll save, how much we'll make when we ship it with two weeks shipping the slowest possible way. And I'm like, man, you just, you can't live in that world anymore. That goes right back.
Speaker 3:So what we were talking about earlier when we were saying short term thinking versus longterm. Yeah, right. We need to make this profit now. But then you look at Amazon, the longterm effects of Amazon prime next day shipping, right, free shipping, all this stuff. You just bring in more and more customers. Now, more people are buying their groceries on Amazon, they're buying everyday essentials, they have subscriptions. You can now subscribe to products, right? And every month you're going to get your 24 pack of Sharman at the door, right? So it's that long term, right? Paying off in dividends,
Speaker 1:drank to Amazon Koolaid a long time ago. Everything, uh, it comes from Amazon and I love it. I love it. It's great. Um, okay, so now what is the difference? Um, between having a vision and then having a mission? Um, and how do we determine the difference between those and how would we set up a mission then once we have a vision,
Speaker 3:so they're slightly similar but they're also different. Um, but they also go together like peanut butter and jelly or lamb and tuna fish. If you're familiar with the movie, big daddy, right? That's one of my favorite lines from that movie. Um, but so essentially a mission statement, it kind of explains what it is that your business does. What do we do right here at advertisement? What do we do? Okay. Um, and it's also where are we going with it and what are our goals? And so you can actually mesh the two. You can have your vision meshed into your mission statement. So, um, I don't know if that answers your question, but essentially the mission is what is it that we do and the vision is where are we going and how are we getting there? So you can blend those two. Got it. Nice. And, and those two will serve as the greater company's compass your company. And you can tie everything back to that when you were in trying to make decisions and figure out which direction do we want to go. Um, what, um, you had a story that we were talking about before when we went on the air that, you know, in terms of having kind of that mission where you started a drone company. Um, can you share that? Cause I just thought that was a great, great kind of analogy. Yeah. Okay. So actually just closed the drone company, um, right to the end. Um, but that was because I, I realized that, uh, I like my free time going to training and my family. And so the time for the drone was just, it wasn't a priority. But going back to, to what you just asked, um, yeah. When I started the drone company, I didn't have a vision. I didn't have a mission. All I knew was that I could make a quick buck getting people with these really cool pictures and these really cool videos because not a lot of people were doing it. Yeah. So I got my FAA one Oh seven drone pilot license so I could fly in different areas and request permission to fly, you know, closer to airports and certain areas. And I was just looking for the quick book. I didn't have that longterm vision. Um, I do have that entrepreneurial spirit, but when I was in the midst of, you know, doing jobs for people, I realized I don't like running a business. I don't like, uh, going out and finding customers. I just like helping people. I like training people. I like coaching them. Um, I love flying drones. I love taking pictures and making videos, but I wasn't the salesperson, so that's where I fell short. Um, but yeah, I didn't have a vision of what I wanted to do with the company, where I wanted to go, how it could have grown it to make it a little bit more sustainable. Maybe I could have hired someone to, you know, get customers for me. Um, so I didn't have that compass. All I was thinking about was, Hey, I can make you know, 500, 2000 bucks and go make a video for someone. And I just made a quick buck. I think the thing that I liked about this so much was that, you know, um, so many people would equate like closing a business to, you know, failure or that it was bad, but I'm like, it's, you were able to say, I'm interested about this. Let me get all the equipment, let me go out there and start doing it. Let me see if I liked this and if I have time for it and if it fits into what I want. Um, and, and you did all that, right. And I think, you know, you, even though you said I didn't have a vision or mission, I remember when you first started it and you're like, this is it. We're doing and you are picking up clients and doing stuff. I was like, man, this is awesome. Um, and it was just like a side hustle. They started into becoming something bigger and then eventually you were like, ah, I gotta, you know, focus on family. Um, which is when you brought it back down, but it was everything that you, you made decision
Speaker 1:the entire time, which means you had, you know, the vision and mission to try to start this and to go for it, even though it wasn't necessarily written down. You got moving in that direction and then at some point you realized you had a bigger vision, which was family and you're like, that's, that's my guiding point. That's my compass now. It goes back to the why. Yeah, right. I didn't even really think about why I was starting a drone business. I knew right away I can make some money and it's fun and it's fun to fly a drone. Um, but at the end of the day, it wasn't contributing to the bigger picture. My vision, my personal mission, what I want to do, where do I want to be when I'm 80 years old. Right. It wasn't contributing to that. So that's why it wasn't a priority for me. I got it. It's such a, it's such a good, good example. Um, you know, how should, um, you know, business owners work with their teams in creating, you know, the mission statement, um, or, or the vision. Um, and, and I say this because after our conversation, one of the things you left me with is you were like, go back and talk to your team and ask them why, why are we here? Like what's our purpose? And we did that. I came back, had a team meeting and it was phenomenal to go around because most of the people on the company had the same sort of vision as me kind of without ever saying it out loud, which was to help businesses grow. And we were like, that's what we like doing. That's what we are. That's the reason why we're here. We help amazing other businesses grow. And it was crazy that it came down to just a quick little, little statement. Um, but that all happened from you. And then for me to have that kind of comeback from the team. And I didn't tell him, here's what mine is. I said, I want you to all write down why we're here, what our purpose is. And we put them out. And then we discussed them all together and it was just incredible. It'd be like, Oh, this is, this is our vision, this is why this is our why. But it came from you being like, Hey, that's, that's it. You got to go, go talk with your team. And I remember being maybe scared, not scared, but I was like, Oh shoot. Like I'm the leader. I should be telling people, here's our vision. And I think the, you know, the advice there was include people and I w I had maybe just been too confident or being like, well, I should be the one that's like, here's the direction that we're going, here's our companies. But I actually, when the process was done, I like the fact that I had everyone in there and being like, where are we going? And now we're all, and it turned out we were all in the same direction, which was, which was great anyway, so it was kind of an unspoken that we all had the same, same vision. We are headed in the same direction. But it was, it was just crazy to see it kind of, you know, unfold and how much of a good experience that was and it all came from you. That's great. I'm glad you had that experience. I'm glad you, you that you and your team
Speaker 3:where we're on the same page and you felt like you're all going in the right direction. So I'll answer your question in a, in a, in a couple parts. Uh, and you kind of addressed both of them already, but we'll do a little review. One of them is I feel that as a business owner, um, you should address the why you should address what your vision is. And then part two to that is now involve the team. Let's find out what the team thinks, what ideas do they have, what is their vision, where do they see this company going? And let me extract that out of them. You need that information from them because you don't realize it, but someone on your team might have that next thing that next it, that next idea that takes your team to the next level. It's just you got to find a way to rip it out of them and then help them bring it to life. So doing a little session like this where you know, uh, maybe we don't have a vision and we don't have a mission yet, but we want to get something started doing it together as a team and pulling from everyone, uh, that is a great ineffective strategy to help start building a mission and a vision. And then, um, so I have some notes here and, and I'll leave them with you and you can, you know, uh, link your listeners to it. They can have it. Um, I've also got a little PowerPoint template that they can use in their own meeting. I've got some cool drone pictures on there and I've just got some very basic statements on there. Uh, your listeners can have that as well. They can use those pictures or I took them. Um, but what essentially what it is is just a couple of tools that you can use to kind of facilitate one of these meetings with your team. So you can make that PowerPoint, PowerPoint, your own, put whatever notes you want in there. I've kind of just got the wheels spinning for your, for your listeners. I love that. Just real quick, I'll just jump in there. Um, so anyone that's listening now, I will throw that under Duke of digital under this episode. Um, if you check out there either on a, you know where it's on, um, iTunes or Spotify, um, it'll be listed there or also on the website. So any of those things that Julian just mentioned, uh, will be waiting for you. Nice little treat. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. So, um, yeah, getting together with the team and having everybody just go around the room, have a round table you can use post it notes, start putting things on the board, right? Where do we want to be? Where do we see ourselves? What does this company look like in five, 10 years? What ideas are going to get us there? How are we going to get there? And just start taking those and start posting them up and start circling the common themes, what's coming up multiple times, what ideas are coming up multiple times, what words and verbiage is being used commonly and pull from that to, to put that mission and vision together. And, and I think the, the real challenge to creating a mission and vision statement is not letting it die on a piece of paper or on a fancy poster on a wall. It's, it's gotta be tied to everything that you're doing in your business. It's gotta be tied to your operations, to your projects, to employee performance. Um, for example, if we're starting a new project next week, right? Um, let's say we're going to roll out a new technology because it's going to help us acquire X, Y, and Z. Uh, you need to share how that fits into the vision. You need to share why it fits. Why are we deciding to go this way and connect the dots for folks? You need to explain the why. When you can explain the why in every business decision. And you can be very transparent. People are gonna buy it. Um, but being able to do that and tying it to everything you do, tying it to your strategy, to your core values, uh, to annual reviews, right? Hey, so-and-so, um, you did this project this year and you worked on it for this amount of time and this is what you did, right? People want to know the numbers, their impact and all that. But also this is how you helped us get towards this initiative, which fits into our vision, right? Uh, when you can connect those dots, you get people who, uh, see the big picture, they become more motivated. They now want to work a little bit harder, um, because they can see where their work is going. And I think that's really another reason why this is so important. People want to know what their work is doing, whether they're sitting behind a desk, uh, programming, coding, or, um, could be any job. They want to know how that job fits into the bigger picture. And you have to be able to explain it and show it to them.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And that what they're doing has meaning and value and purpose for sure. And I would say, you know, maybe my parent's generation were like, Hey, we're grateful to have a job. Let's go to work. Yeah. Um, this is great. Let's, let's stay, you know, we'll have a white picket fence and a and raise babies. And that's wonderful. And I think now kind of the generation, especially with the younger ones, if anything else that you talk about is there has gotta be a reason for why are we sending emails all day? Or why are we doing rapport? It's, or like if there's a purpose behind it, they're like, I'm on board. But if it's just do it cause we told you to and someone else makes a lot of money, they're like, ah, whatever. Like though there'll be gone and I'll go look for something else that does have meaning or does that value to them?
Speaker 3:No, you're absolutely right. There is a lot of literature that suggest, right? People, especially the younger crowd, millennials and the new generations coming up, they want to work for a company or business that has a purpose. They want to know what their work is doing and how does it fit into the bigger picture beyond profit, beyond a product. How are we impacting the community? Um, and even in my own experience working at a large utility in Southern California, I've seen just in the past year, many people who are in my generation, uh, the millennial group, they're just up and leaving. They're leaving a six figure job to go do something that they find more purpose in. And to them it's not a big deal. Um, and maybe that's because their vision or their purpose isn't aligning with what we're doing. And you know, that six figure, the benefits, all that stuff, it's, it's, it's not making them feel fulfilled, so they're just jumping ship and going and starting their own nonprofit or, you know, going to go find a new path that aligns with the purpose that they, Oh, for sure. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It's as if money isn't the ultimate, you know, uh, the ultimate for, you know, passion or for meaning. Um, there's, you know, people are now pushing that aside and focusing more on, there's other things that they want to be able to do or that that have meaning or value to them. Um, I wanted to ask you one more question. What would be your advice if you're a business owner and there are people that don't want to accept the vision that you're looking to set? An example would be, I mean, you miss, uh, mentioned Tesla earlier. I mean, you take Ford or Toyota, which are traditionally, you know, companies that have gas cars. And I mean, obviously it looks like things are moving more electric. Um, you know, as someone changes it'd be like, Hey, we're going to start, you know, making, uh, electric cars or something like that. There are probably people that are like, no, this isn't what we've always done. Yeah. You know, what would be your advice in that scenario if you can't get everyone on board? You know, what, uh, what advice would you have for business owners in regards to that?
Speaker 3:So, that's a very good question. It can be very complicated, but we'll, we'll touch on a couple things. So one, there will always be that small group of folks who just cannot get on board. Um, and you have to work with those folks, right? Those folks can either be your greatest asset or your biggest downfall. So you need to tap into them. You need to have discussions with them. You need to find out what they're thinking, why they're thinking it, what is it about this direction that they don't agree with or they're not certain about? And you need to dig into that and tap into that and coach these folks. Um, you might not be able to coach them to go in your direction, but there's a couple of things that need to be addressed, addressed there with folks. Uh, like that one of them is maybe it's not aligning with them personally. Um, and so maybe they're just doing this job to get a paycheck and so they don't really care where you're going, whether they agree with it or not. So being a good coach, engaging with that person, you can help them figure out if this is the place for them. Because ultimately you would like to have them, but you want them to be on board. So coaching you won't go wrong because what will either happen from coaching and working with someone is they'll either figure out that this isn't the place for them and they'll respectfully leave or you and that person will work together, build a relationship, and together you will find a way to help bring that person aboard. And whether it's because you need to explain the why more, you need to be more transparent. You need to show them how their work fits into the bigger picture. Sometimes that's the missing link. Some people just don't know why we're doing this or it hasn't been explained in a language to them that they understand
Speaker 1:get advice. Um, yeah, I can imagine most people listening, if you think of someone that generally is, is against things. Most people could probably imagine someone that they're like, ah, yeah, I know, I know who I'm thinking of now. Um, but I would think, you know, uh, from my standpoint, I would imagine that anyone who's listening to this right now at some point has believed something and later on come to realize that maybe they were wrong or maybe there was a different option that they're like, Oh, that one did work really well. Or I was, you know, I was off on that one. And the one I hear a lot of is with stock pigs. If people will be like, someone told me to invest in Apple and I was like, Oh, fruit company. Huh? And they're like, you know, 20 years later they're like, I would have been a billionaire. I had, I had done that. Um, and so, you know, you hear stories like that where people were like, I realize now as I'm older, you know, I was wrong, but I think, you know, the things that you ran through are, are wonderful tips in terms of how to kind of deal with that type of person and get them back on your side. Figure out where they're at. Yeah. Explain to them why things are changed. Because the truth is everything will change. Um,
Speaker 3:and we live in a different world than before. Um, you know, many years ago this stuff was wishy-washy. Ah, I don't need a mission. I don't need a vision, right. It's about the bottom line. Or, um, I don't need to worry about how my employees feel or where is it that they want to go. I just need them to do their job. We live in a different world. Yeah. We want to be more transparent with our folks. People want to know why. And it's okay for them to ask why. They shouldn't be afraid to ask why they shouldn't be afraid to ask questions. And this is why it's very exciting to work in employee development right now because, uh, more and more companies are starting to realize the benefits of this stuff. Um, and it's funny, as I was driving over here and coming down the burial Boulevard, it was just bringing back so many memories of my time here in Hollywood. So, you know, working for a large utility, um, Hollywood was very close to home for me because it was the first time that I was given a, a team to, to manage a team of over 30 folks. And the funny thing about this was at that time we were transitioning from one way of doing things, right? People were doing work manually every single day. We were transitioning to implementing technology that was taking away those jobs. And so now my job was to ask these folks to do this job and do it safely and do it correct and do it with quality and do it with meaning. But at the same time your job is going away. So it was one of the biggest challenges for me. So driving through here, driving through Hollywood just brought back so many memories and it made me feel so good because, uh, not only was that one of the hardest times for me as a people leader, but I learned so many things. And this is just going back to what you were saying about people not being on board, right? Because I'm here, I am leading this team over 30 people and I'm telling them, Hey, we're switching to this new technology. So, um, we still got to do our current job. But as you know, things get implemented, the jobs are going to be going away. And so you're going to have those folks who, um, you know, they don't believe it, right? They are in denial now they don't want to do a good job or they just can't get on board. And so you really have to work with those folks. And so my whole mission during that time was I want to transition all these folks on my team. I want to make sure that they're doing the current job. Now, um, they're doing it right, they're doing it safe. I want to coach them into the next phase of their career. I don't want them to feel like we're just asking them to do this job and then that's it. So it was my vision and my personal mission as a leader. I'm going to make sure we get the job done, but I'm going to make sure you all secure another job here at the company. And I'm going to do that by finding out everything about you, what it is you want to do, where do you want to go? How do you want to get there? And let's get you out of this position and ready for a new one. And when you can do that, and when you can tap into those people, especially the folks who, who are really resisting, um, and coach them and find out what drives them, what makes them tick, you know, what is their red thread? The thing that, uh, brings them excitement about work, then you can start to get them going in the right direction. And, um, it's a long story. But to sum it up, you know, my time here in Hollywood, we were able to transition. Everybody got a job? Oscar, nobody lost a job. You know, everybody landed something new. And, uh, just sticking to that mission, that vision of where I see our, our team going, you know, I'm going to help you get somewhere. We're going to get through this, I'm gonna make sure, you know, you have coaching, you know, how to, uh, put together a nice resume. You know, how to, uh, search for the right job that fits what you can do, all these little things, right. Um, bringing those folks on board so that they can make that smooth transition. But again, the whole idea was sticking to what my mission was, my vision, my compass. So that even when we had those dark days where folks felt like they weren't gonna ever get to the light at the end of the tunnel when we've stuck to, you know, where it is we want to go and how we're going to get there, we were able to get those folks there.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love it. I love it. As we kind of bring, you know, this episode to a close, are there any, you know, final words of advice or wisdom that you would give to other business owners? Um, kind of in regards to, to all this, or it can even be something separate, but just any, any last words that you'd want to, I want to share? Yeah, I would say
Speaker 3:[inaudible] especially if you're working with a team and you have a big team, right? Your people are your biggest asset. Your people, they are your organization, right? Advertisement is a name, but advertisement is also this collective of people. And those people are the folks who are going to take your business wherever it is you want it to go. So leveraging your folks, investing in them. Maybe we could talk about on another episode, you know, how do I invest in my employees? How do I, uh, create a learning and development, you know, program. Um, how can we give people the tools they need to develop their career in house? Because, uh, right now we are living in a world where a human capital talent, it's the biggest competitive advantage. And everybody's fighting for talent. And if you want people to stay at your company, right and you want them to work for you, you need to find a way to keep them there. You need to draw them in a, you need to develop them. You need to invest in them. You need to listen to them. You need to hear their ideas. You might not use all their ideas. Uh, it might not be the right time for their ideas, but at least they felt like they've been listened to. Um, so investing in your employees, listening to them, leveraging them, developing them, best thing you can do for your business because it's your people who are going to move your company forward.
Speaker 1:I love that. Uh, I couldn't agree more with that, that all the things of our, our company has grown, um, or how it's expanded have come directly from the people who we've brought onto the team. Um, and that's 100% true. Well, Julian, I wanted to thank you so much for being here today. Thank you Brian for having me. Yeah, it's great to, to be able to chat about this and uh, for our listeners, uh, stick around and we'll catch you on the next episode. Thank you for listening to the Duke of digital podcast with Brian Mitt, one to network with other business owners. Join our exclusive group at.com/groups/duke
Speaker 2:of digital fancy the Duke. Leave a five star review on your favorite podcast app, and you could be mentioned on the show. The Duke of digital was produced by advertisement and recorded in Hollywood, California.