How to Lead Your Company With Strong Vision

Caleb Agee 0:00
This vision is your filter mechanism. And when you see something, when you have a leadership meeting, when you have a board meeting, or whatever form that looks like an owner’s meeting, you need to say, hey, we have this new opportunity. Does it fit inside of our vision?

Brandon Welch 0:20
Welcome to the Maven Marketing Podcast. Today is Maven Monday. I’m your host, Brandon Welch, and I’m joined by the soon to be dad of four, Caleb Agee,

Caleb Agee 0:29
could not come any sooner, yes, maybe by the time you’re listening to this. Oh, it’s she could be here.

Brandon Welch 0:34
It’s done. She’s here. Yeah, this is the place where we answer your real life marketing questions so you can eliminate waste in advertising, grow your business and achieve the big dream. Papa of four is part of the big dream? Yeah, the other part of the big dream is all about big vision,

Caleb Agee 0:48
yeah, bringing a bringing a big vision that channels everything. Um, for this recording, it’s halfway through the year. It’s July, and I think it’s a good time to reassess. I’ve actually seen a lot of business owners asking this question, where, you know, where is your vision? Where are your where’s your focus, and so where are we and where are we going? Yeah, and so we wanted to take a stop, whether you’re listening to this now in July or, you know, in a year or two, is still valuable, your vision is step one in the strategy component of the Maven method.

Brandon Welch 1:18
Maven method is our playbook for growing businesses. We’ve got a track record of 10x ing professional service companies across America, yeah, and this is the foundation for companies that grow faster than others, that grow more profitably than others, and that do it with less turnover. Yeah? So vision is a big word. A lot of talking heads, yeah, are out there. You will hear this at every, you know, seminar, or somebody trying to fire you up. Yeah, some keynote speaker,

Caleb Agee 1:43
if you’re if you’re reaching for the pause button because you hear the word vision, stop because we’re gonna make it really simple. We’re gonna make it real. I promise this is gonna be good for you.

Brandon Welch 1:51
Yes, hang on. So I promise you, this is the foundation for the best marketing campaigns, and it’s really the foundation for everything that we want as business owners, that freedom that we talk about, it is the bridge that connects your customers desires to your team’s talents, to the outcome your customer wants. Yeah, that’s what vision is. Okay? Vision is not something you can review once a year at a fancy corporate retreat. Whoa. Oh, if you if you were guilty. And I’ll just be honest with you, I’ve been in companies where we were guilty of this. I’ve been I’ve led companies we were guilty of this where you get all excited and you bring in that guest speaker, or you go somewhere and get all fired up, and you come back with your vision statement. You sit around and build it with a committee, and you’ve got this big, fancy vision statement that everybody agrees. Yeah, that’s what we do. You probably tacked onto it 50 different times, and it sits on your company website, on the about page, and maybe in some notes from that corporate retreat. Yeah, and it is that that is not what vision is. Okay? It’s not a complex statement. That’s number two, vision is not complex, and vision is not about the founder or any individual stakeholder. If that’s what you’ve done, if it’s a if you’ve made a vision that’s about, you know, being the best or growing the fastest, or whatever, you’re probably not doing it right, because it’s got to be about a bigger outcome. As Steve Jobs would say, it’s about the dent you put in the universe. It’s the impact and the outcome you make on many Yeah. So tell us about some companies with strong vision. Yeah,

Caleb Agee 3:20
we we just love companies with strong vision. Target says we fulfill the needs and fuel the potential of our guests. We

Brandon Welch 3:29
fulfill the needs and fuel the potential of our guests. Fuel the potential that’s bigger than them, that’s bigger than a stakeholder, that’s bigger than a bonus check, that’s bigger than the stock price. They’re creating a world that’s bigger, right? Yep, uh, IKEA creates better everyday lives for as many people as possible. I love that one. That’s good, that’s

Caleb Agee 3:47
aspirational. Zoom says, video communications, empowering people to accomplish more. Video Communications,

Brandon Welch 3:53
empowering people to accomplish more. That’s humanity. That could be 7 billion people potentially life, church, love God, love people. Love is bigger, right? Yeah, amazing. Tell us about a few more.

Caleb Agee 4:07
Toyota says enriching lives around the world with the safest and most responsible ways of moving people. They

Brandon Welch 4:13
enrich lives. They’re responsible and safe. You notice,

Caleb Agee 4:17
none of these are saying the word of what they do. It’s kind of interesting. It’s bigger than some, you know, they’re, they’re saying, like Toyota said, moving people. Yes, it’s like the outcome. I love that of what they do. I love that because,

Brandon Welch 4:32
you know, what, if, Toyota, if, if technology decides that we all have flying cars one day, Toyota’s vision doesn’t have to change because it’s moving people, driving people, Yep, yeah. Nestle is bringing consumers safe, high quality foods that provide optimal nutrition,

Caleb Agee 4:50
like Ted. Spread ideas,

Brandon Welch 4:53
that’s awesome. Spread ideas, amazing. We’ll do one, last one. We’ll do Harley Davidson to fulfill dreams. Dreams through the experiences of motorcycling, they’re fulfilling dreams. What you should start to see is that these are world class companies. These are companies that are undeniably the category leaders of what they do. These are companies that have 10s of 1000s of people lining up, eager to work for them. These are companies that even for people who don’t necessarily belong as their consumer, I’m thinking Harley Davidson. Not everybody’s gonna own a Harley Davidson, but we feel that, right? We feel that excitement when we hear the word Harley Davidson, yeah. And that is what a vision statement should do. If you aren’t in the category to buy that product, when you hear it, you should, you should go, oh, wow, that’s a big thing. Yeah, yeah. And if you don’t work for that company and you hear that, you should go, oh, wow, that’s a big company. It’s a big idea. So we’re going to talk about how to do that. Because the if you look at all the problems facing Small Business America, we have apathy in the economy. We have a recent hangover of it being an employee’s market. Yeah, and we have this whole pending threat of political and world chaos, and it’s just making everything sound the same and everything sound blase. And the companies with strong vision, the companies that, when you encounter them, you undeniably know they’re going to leave you better than they found you. They’re going to inspire you. They’re taking you to a bigger place, a bigger world, which is what we’re going to talk about, yeah. Then where you are now. Those are the companies that are a magnet. Without them, without that vision, that magnetic vision statement or idea, you’re a random group of people doing random tasks that anybody could do, but with the vision to hold you forward, the sum is bigger than its individual parts, right?

Caleb Agee 6:42
Yeah, Steve Jobs said, if you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed the vision pulls you.

Brandon Welch 6:51
Think there’s so many people starving for vision. I’m gonna go philosophical for half a second, and then we’re gonna get down to how you actually create this, okay? Depression. Divorce, broken relationships, suicide, missed opportunities and careers, general apathy and just anxiety that exists in our world. We all know that it’s here like statistically, any, anybody in that profession will tell you that the state of our mental being is low. Yeah, this is where I believe small business can actually change the world and fix those problems, because small businesses are the most consistent hub where people get together to do bigger things. And if you are a small business owner that does good work. And I know you are because you’re listening to this podcast. Yes, you are. We don’t have people to do bad work on this audience. I know that you want to do something bigger, and I know that you believe that your work is bigger than the sum of the parts and the hours you put in just the individual product you make, but your ability to convince other people that hinges on your ability to articulate it. And so we’re going to talk about the idea of a vision statement on

Caleb Agee 8:04
that note, quick book thought would be a man search for meeting. Oh, you should look very powerful. And this is what people are looking for, purpose and meaning, and we’re void of that.

Brandon Welch 8:18
That’s called depression, yes. And so you’re going to give them a purpose, and you’re going to do it with your vision statement. With your vision statement. Estee Lauder, mega, mega, mega, famous, you know, fashion makeup founder, right? All great things begin to the vision a dream. I’ve always believed that success comes from not letting your eyes stray from that target, not letting them stray from that target. There’s a clue, anyone who wants to achieve a dream must stay focused strong and steady. So let’s talk about how to make words and ideas that keep your company focused strong and steady. There are two parts to this, yeah. The first is declaring your vision. We’re to hopefully teach you how to declare your own vision. The second is integrating that vision.

Caleb Agee 9:00
I think of the office when Michael walks out and having financial trouble and he says, I declare bankruptcy. That’s not what we’re necessarily doing. That is a declaration. It is a declaration

Brandon Welch 9:11
in the Maven in the Maven method. This is chapter 19. This is called starting with strategy, and it’s all about the vision you create. We talk about declaring the vision, yeah, declare isn’t is a it’s an active veracive word, yeah, sorry. Declare it’s not craft. It’s not write down. It’s not makeup. We come up with. It’s

Caleb Agee 9:33
you’re not fishing, you don’t cast it, and you declare it, yeah? And

Brandon Welch 9:37
if Yeah, you don’t cast it, you declare it. You declare the world you’re trying to create. And if you are leading a company right now, and there’s not an instant jolt of like, where you can go to declare what you’re trying to do, more than just, you know, making things or installing Windows or selling legal services or whatever it is you do, we’re gonna take you through a few questions. Questions, okay, so the declaration is your mantra, it’s your identity, it’s your backbone. At the end of the day, this is the world you’re trying to create with your company and organizations. The tasks you do are for a greater cause. Just for a quick example, Nate, our vision at Frank and Maven, is to create a world where entrepreneurs

Speaker 1 10:19
can confidently grow their business without wasting money on advertising. A world where

Brandon Welch 10:24
entrepreneurs can confidently grow their business without wasting money on advertising, that’s the world we’re creating. That’s why we come to work, yep, that’s why we prescribe the plans that we prescribe. That’s why we study the things that we study. That’s why we listen to the things we listen to. That’s why we celebrate the things we celebrate is so that entrepreneurs do not have to wake up confused or frustrated or broke from their efforts trying to make their dream a bigger thing. Yep, that’s

Caleb Agee 10:49
it. Why we come in at 3pm every day, yes, um,

Brandon Welch 10:54
that started with the founder. Yeah, I happened to be that guy, but because it was a it was a painful experience I went through, and it was like, dang it, it shouldn’t be this way. There ought to be a better solution. I couldn’t find it for myself, so we as a team went and created it, and I’m the circus leader that makes that happen. But back that up, the Formula One you can use. And by the way, you’ll notice that some of the best companies the world didn’t exactly use this formula. This is the one we developed, because it forces you to use all the components of passion, I think. And so we say a world where ideal customer, Nate’s gonna put this up on the screen, yep, fill in the blank of ideal customer. So it could be moms, it could be families, it could be people, homeowners could be humanity could be homeowners could be persons with disabilities.

Caleb Agee 11:49
Could be, could be men could be women could be, yeah, you could be

Brandon Welch 11:55
Republicans. I mean, it could, could be whatever, dogs, yeah, or, or fish, all right, you know, or blue skies, or wherever. So a world where pilots you know, so who is that? And just a quick note on that, most companies will serve more than one avatar. They’ll serve one individual, more than one individual type of person, a more more than one stereotype, right? Don’t be afraid to be specific. It’s not, it’s not a sin if you don’t go super, super specific. But don’t be afraid to like, filter to that person, because that person’s stakeholders, that person’s cheerleaders, if you will, like, we say entrepreneurs, yes, well, doesn’t mean that we don’t want accountants to read that and have passion. Yeah, it doesn’t mean that we don’t want pastors to read that and have passion, but they get it when you hear the word entrepreneur, right? So if you say moms and you very well know that dad may be making the decision for this product, for some product for mom, it’s okay, it’s okay. It’s the end stakeholder, and all the people around that can can help that. So, yeah, maybe you need to define that it’s small business owners. It doesn’t mean that we don’t help big business owners. It just means that our heart is driving for the small business owner and the pains of that person, right? Yeah, but we say entrepreneurs, yours should be something identifiable in passion, right? Yes, World War, insert blank. Ideal customer can achieve need or hope. So this follows the Maven method, needs, pains, hopes or fears format, but they can achieve a need that they have now or a hope, maybe something that’s a little bigger the Harley Davidson one was a little bit more about hope, right? Yeah, like the exhilaration of motorcycles, right? But your ideal customer can achieve need or hope. Okay, and think about the biggest outcome, the most glorious outcome you provide for them. Let’s take a product that could potentially be uninspiring, and I’m doing this on the fly. Think of a product uninspiring, oh, no, Lacroix. Nate says, Lacroix, no. Lacroix is very inspiring. A world where thirsty people can drink water without drinking water, a world where thirsty people can get hydrated without being bored, right? Yeah, while still being healthy. Or a world where people who like soda can drink soda while being healthy, healthy, right? That was Lacroix. Thank you for that. Nate,

Caleb Agee 14:22
what if we did whiteboards? Okay, yeah, who who uses whiteboards? The ideal customer for people with ideas. People with ideas? Yes, okay, need, a need or a hope.

Brandon Welch 14:38
Uh, communicate. Share something like that. They can share their ideas, share with ideas, can share their ideas. My

Caleb Agee 14:44
whiteboard in my office ends up I just draw the worst drawings. I’m like, we need this and this and this. And everybody’s like, okay, I get it, yeah, without pain or fear. So what’s the pain or fear? They were be avoiding

Brandon Welch 14:57
wasting materials. Yeah, you don’t waste paper. It’s. You can you really don’t waste

Caleb Agee 15:01
ink or, yeah, okay, so you could

Brandon Welch 15:06
also go pain of or the pain or fear of, like, without multimedia, without chords and technology, yeah, pretty low technology, right? So, a world where people with ideas can share those ideas without fancy technology, a world where people with ideas can share those ideas without wasting resources. Love it really cheap, right? Yeah, so silly little exercise with Lacroix and white paper. Sorry, whiteboards. Whiteboards and you’re going to say, start thinking about who that person is that’s pretty easy. Take it down to a level. What is their void? Because we get really in the weeds about our product and our features and our trying to be the best, or trying to be the, you know, most technically advanced or whatever. But what’s the void? What do they avoid of when they need you, and what are they over filled with after they interact with you? Yeah,

Caleb Agee 16:02
we’ve got some good questions that help lead you maybe to this origin point. Because I think going back to your roots the very beginning is really powerful way to remember, because you can sway off course right. If you don’t have strong vision, you can get pulled left and right. And this vision, when it’s proper, is a filtering mechanism for opportunities, for anything in your company. You say, is this us? And it goes through that, that vision filter, yep, and it comes out on the other side, or it doesn’t or gets sent away. And so these questions are, you know, what got you crazy enough to start this thing? Yeah?

Brandon Welch 16:36
We say, what’s your pissed off moment? Yeah. Every startup entrepreneur knows what this vision is. They’re, they’re face to face with a pain, right? A true entrepreneur, right? And

Caleb Agee 16:46
what I know of true entrepreneurs is sometimes it’s hard for them to articulate it, and so it’s, it’s good to have somebody else ask you these questions. I’m just gonna fly as in the notes, but I think it’s good for you to have somebody ask you these questions and then to say, oh, okay, so it’s this and then what’s the one thing you guys do better than anyone? And who suffers if you aren’t doing it? Yeah,

Brandon Welch 17:11
if you don’t start this thing, if you don’t do your job well, who is suffering right now? That inverse questioning will actually usually reveal your idea, your most ideal customer, but it also reveal your ideal passion. I

Caleb Agee 17:21
think, yeah, I forget

Brandon Welch 17:23
who said this, but it was somebody that said, Hey, what is the thing that will you will not be able to do in your lifetime, but you want as an outcome, what is the mission or the vision that will outlive you? Like it’s so big that, you know, there’s never been anybody that did it in a single lifetime. Somebody will have to be carrying on. And Steve Jobs had that kind of, you know, purity in his and conviction and his visions, uh, JFK said, we’re going to send a man to the moon. He didn’t know he was not going to live to see that, but he very well knew he could have probably the time he goes. We choose to send a man to moon, not because it’s hard, and it fired up the world, not just the nation, but it’s the most viewed event in the entire history of television, even when populations were, you know, a billion less than they are now. So say the thing that should scare the heck out of you a little bit, if your vision doesn’t make you wonder how you’re going to do it, you’re thinking too small.

Caleb Agee 18:23
That’s good. It’s a battle cry. It’s

Brandon Welch 18:25
your battle cry. It is the thing that will unite people and inspire them to do something for a common good that they don’t even know how they could even begin to do with by themselves, right? That’s

Caleb Agee 18:34
it. That’s it. Okay? So, so you need to take a moment and build that if you don’t have a form of a vision statement, I would encourage you to take a moment work with your leadership. If you’re not in leadership at your company, you’re going to have to go maybe be that secondary person, ask these questions that that’s really crucial, really, for everybody to be on the same page. We talked about that, because if you don’t have it, you’re going to wander, and everybody’s going to bring their own version of the vision, not bad things necessarily, but everybody brings their own version of that vision, and they’re going to complete their own pieces of the puzzle. That’s right, I think we’re doing this. And it’s it’s probably good that they’re thinking that way, that shows ownership and good thought. But it’s

Brandon Welch 19:21
not that they’re wrong, yeah, it’s just it wasn’t their thing to decide, yeah. It’s not like you have to be a leader, and a very, very small amount of people get to collaborate on that big vision with you. Otherwise, it’s not a vision. It’s a committee. It’s a collaboration. Collaboration is a beautiful thing in business, but it happens at the execution level, not at the where we should go level too many cooks in the kitchen, right? Yep, so we talked about creating that vision statement. But the thing that is bigger than the individual parts of your company, why are we doing this? Right? Yeah, some outcomes of that your people are going to know why they’re there or why. They shouldn’t be there. Yep, if you ever had an employee that did their own thing, or if you ever had an employee that was not inspired, if you’ve ever had an employee that just may have done a good job on something, but it just wasn’t in format, it’s because the vision wasn’t clear. Yeah. And so we’re going to talk about how to integrate that vision so that that doesn’t happen to you. What’s the step one of integrating our vision? And you do it so, well, uh,

Caleb Agee 20:26
well, thank you very much. We reinforce it weekly. And I this is, like we said, it’s not something you go and catch, um, it’s not a disease, yeah, uh, it’s not fishing. No, you want to make sure you reinforce this because you have to repeat it and repeat it and repeat it. Nate didn’t learn it overnight. Neither did we, truthfully. But when you when it becomes a part of your internal culture, your vernacular, it’s a part of it’s that heartbeat that’s right there leading everybody you get to do it. And so you have to say it often out loud. And another good way is to ask, how did we fulfill our vision?

Brandon Welch 21:07
Yeah, the best visionaries I know go, is that true? Are we still on vision like we’re it cannot become just a parrot regurgitated exercise. You can go do that at preschool, right? Yeah. It has to be something that is tangible, and you as the leader, you have to sometimes connect things that your people are doing that are on vision, but they didn’t realize, Oh, that was on vision. Caleb does this so well. Every week we have a one of the main points in our Monday morning meeting is, why are we here? Mate, yep. Why are we here? Audrey, why are we here? I

Caleb Agee 21:40
pick a random person, and then I say, and how do we fulfill that? And actually, even before that, the very next point is we do company wins, which really should be us fulfilling our vision. Yes, on Friday in the morning, Caleb sends an email out. We send an email and we say, Hey, how did we win this week? Everybody has the sound off. They reply all. And everybody gets to celebrate them and see them, and then we talk about them on Monday.

Brandon Welch 22:04
And so there’s a daily and that dude as as the visionary dude, like, this is my thing. I forget it just as much as anybody else does. And when you see that, and you know, no more than seven days ever goes by, if Frank and Maven, without you seeing why we’re here and how we did it, why we’re here, how we did it, why we’re here, how we did it. That’s the pace you need to have as a leader. That’s the responsibility you have to carry your vision forward, or else it’s just a fancy bag of words that gets looked at a few times a year, and everybody kind of starts to believe. Man, that isn’t it anything that’s a corporate exercise. Yeah, so you’re reinforcing it weekly.

Caleb Agee 22:39
Yep. You talk about it with your team, but you also talk about it with your clients. At some level, you’re maybe not going to just regurgitate it at them, but they need to know why you exist, and that should be a yes or a no, whether or not you should work together, especially if you’re doing we do a lot of B to B if we’re going to partner with an organization for the long term, we want to make sure that we both believe the same things and that we that they see the vision we have and we see the vision they have. So

Brandon Welch 23:07
this is slide three on every presentation we ever give to acquire a client, we say we’re creating a world where entrepreneurs can confidently grow without wasting money on advertising. That’s right. Is that why you’re here? Because, if not, we should shake hands and part as friends. Do you want to confidently grow, and then we tell them what growth means to us. We kind of elaborate on that vision, and then we tell them why we’re so hell bent on not wasting their money. We see the dollars you’re about to give us as our dollars, and we will not do something that we wouldn’t do for ourselves. That’s right, and that sometimes has filtered clients out. We’ve learned to say, if they’re not on fire about that, if they think they’re hiring us to manage clicks or to do some sort of random creative task, we’ve got the wrong partner. And we say, love you. Here’s our ideas. You should take them and go do them, but we probably aren’t the right ones to execute it for you. So another, another point leads to that leads to number two,

Caleb Agee 23:58
yeah, which is, filter your opportunities with it. I alluded to this a second ago, but a vision statement done right should be the yes or the no that stops any opportunity along the way. You will, if you are in business more than a day, you will have an opportunity to do something that is slightly different from what you were already doing in the first place. Yes and distractions come in disguise as opportunities. They look like opportunities. So you have to be very, very, very, very, very careful that you don’t get distracted by opportunities. And this vision is your filter mechanism. And when you see something, when you have a leadership meeting, when you have a board meeting, or whatever form that looks like an owner’s meeting, you need to say, hey, we have this new opportunity. Does it fit inside of our vision?

Brandon Welch 24:44
Yep, we were not good at this for many years. This took, well, let’s just say I wasn’t. Caleb was always the one going, Hey, I don’t think you said that or that’s not what we’re supposed to be doing. But as a company, we took a lot of shiny objects and things that. Felt like they were either, you know, good profit, or they could help us to our next step in hiring a team member or and we justified doing a lot of things that internally were not actually on vision for the original way we started this company. And

Caleb Agee 25:14
let’s be clear, they were things that advertising and marketing agencies do all over the world. Yeah, 100% they are marketing and advertising things, but we decided they didn’t help us confidently grow businesses without wasting money on advertising. Entrepreneurs in particular, help us. Help entrepreneurs. Yeah,

Brandon Welch 25:31
so for us, and since we’re the ones who can kind of speak to this that came across as like websites, one off websites for big manufacturing companies, or technical fixes on somebody’s like, email program or, like, one off campaigns for a university, and it’s like, God bless you. Those are the things you’re supposed to be doing as your vision. But our vision is entrepreneurs. Our vision is the owner operators that woke up with a dream and it took over them, and they had to get it out in the world and optimizing those types of companies, usually that have a local or regional impact, yep. And so it’s,

Caleb Agee 26:02
it’s actually, when you have a strong vision, it will cost you something as well. So if you see, I mean, we’re looking at six figure projects for rebrands, that somebody’s like, I want to change the logo on my front door. And we said, will that help an entrepreneur confidently grow their business without wasting money on advertising. And we could not reasonably say, yeah, that the logo on the front door was a long term effect of advertising. And you saving money doesn’t mean it

Brandon Welch 26:30
was a bad thing to do. No. God bless you. Go talk to our buddies over here that do that. That’s

Caleb Agee 26:35
not why we exist, not why we exist, not the world we’re

Brandon Welch 26:38
creating. Guys, the more you do that, and the more you’re convicted on that a the world starts to send you the exact right things, because the words in the water that you are supposed to do that, and then, therefore, the like, de facto implication is you are the best in the world of that. Yeah, if you’re convicted about it, if you are, if you’re a baseball player, nobody thinks of you to be to play football with them. If you are the best Asian restaurant in the world, nobody’s coming to you for pizza. Okay? You put out in the world what you are and what you’re the best at, and then what happens is that you get those opportunities start coming your way like a magnet. So what are we doing? We are saying it weekly. We are reinforcing it weekly. We are filtering our opportunities through it. And then, third, we are not apologizing for it. You’re gonna have some team members who eventually are talented. They’re gonna be great people. They’re gonna be great culture fits, but ultimately they’re not gonna have the passion for your vision that you do. Their heart’s not going to go pitter patter to help entrepreneurs grow. They’re going to want to go do some of the other fancy things that can be done in your space. And frankly, with the same skill set that it would take to do the thing you want to do. And I think our hesitation as leaders is to say, Oh, I’ve got to make it look like we can do that too. Or I’ve got to say, well, we could do that. And why wouldn’t we? Because it makes good money, yeah, but if it’s not on vision, if it doesn’t make your visional heartbeat go pitter patter somewhere in your organization, you’ve got to just part ways of those people. Step one is you can clarify and say, Hey, I see you wanting to do these things. Love you for that. You would certainly be good at them. But this is what we’re doing. This is where we’re going. Is that a bus you can get on? And if not, let’s talk about how to get you off that bus. That’s tough. It’s extremely tough. That will never be easy and but I also don’t think it’s easy or possible to change

Caleb Agee 28:42
it. Yeah, it’ll pay off in the long run. Yes, unfortunately, but it’s better for that person as well. You it is you are both a compassionate thing to do in the maybe the wrong situation, and so it’s better for you to have a team that is fully aligned with this vision. And it’s such a beautiful thing. It’s hard conversation to have, but

Brandon Welch 29:01
we told a potential client that this morning, we said, this is what we do. This is why we do it. If we can’t do this, it’s not that you’re wrong, it’s that that’s just not what we do. We could do the thing you’re asking us to do, but if you don’t see it this way, shake hands. Part as friends. We wish you well. Call us if we can help with advice or encouragement or whatever. And so we have learned to turn down literally 1000s and 10s and 10s and 10s, if not hundreds, of 1000s of dollars by that filter. Yep, we don’t apologize for it, and it’s not like we’re better than that. And meh, you know you’re stupid for thinking the way you do. It’s that, hey, we’ve done it enough times this way to know that this is who we’re supposed to be, this is how we’re supposed to do it. And there might be more than one way to skin a cat, but we don’t know that way. We know this way, so we’re not apologizing for it, and therefore, we left room open for the next person who needs it exactly the way that we do it. That’s right. And everybody on this. Sales audience. Could apply that to somewhere. You can apply that to a relationship. You’d apply that to the way you lead your business. You could apply that to organizations you choose to partner with or serve with. But you can’t buy tacos at McDonald’s. Can you? No, you cannot. Caleb told me that the other day, when

Caleb Agee 30:16
we were having a vision conversation. We were having a

Brandon Welch 30:19
vision conversation that product is not available here. We don’t sell that. Yeah? Or McDonald’s, you must be looking for Taco Bell. They’re right across the way. Sure, they would be happy to serve you a taco. Yep, that’s not our vision for the world. So let’s review. Vision is a determination of companies that grow faster. It’s a determination of your productivity, longevity and growth of your team, and it’s the termination of your marketing working as best as it possibly can. Vision is not something you can review once a year to treat it is not complex, and it’s not about the founder or any individual stakeholder. It’s about the dent you put in the universe and the impact and outcome you make. For many you’re going

Caleb Agee 30:57
to want to start by declaring your vision, and you got to make it loud. You got to make it real. You got to make it specific, and it’s got to be inspiring. It’s that battle cry we talked about, and you got to make sure that it speaks to your ideal, a world where your ideal customer can achieve need or hope without pain or fear. And that’s just a formula we use. I think it could help you, if you don’t have one that’s this clear, go, use it.

Brandon Welch 31:25
Um, you can curtail it from there and style it up from there. Yep. That’s how you declare your vision. Then you’re going to integrate your vision into your culture by reinforcing it weekly, filtering your opportunities with it, and never, ever, ever apologizing for it, because it’s what you and your company was put on the earth to do, that’s right, that is inspiring, that will rally people together, customers and clients and team members and all of those things. And that’s what we have for you guys today. Go work on your vision. Make it clear, make it repeatable, and you are going to grow. And that’s what we do here. That’s right. We’ll be back here every Monday answering your real life marketing questions, because marketers who can’t teach you why

Caleb Agee 32:06
are just a fancy lie. Have a great week.