Why Employees Ignore Your Mission Statement

We hear from so many business owners who are struggling with high turnover, low morale, and teams that just aren't clicking.

And so often the real problem isn't the product, the service, or the people. It's the culture.

And that's why we would love to bring The Business Fix to your next event or webinar to help transform your team and to push your business forward.

Ready to fix your culture and unlock your team's potential? Visit us at businessfixpodcast.com and click Connect with Us to learn more.

We have talked before about bad corporate wallpaper, and because we're in the first 30 seconds of the video, I can't swear yet. I will later.

Yeah, sure you will.

Why don't your employees buy into your mission statement, your core values? Why don't they buy into that? Because you do. Why, why, why don't you? I'm assuming you've seen this where people— oh, absolutely, all day long. That is what we're going to talk about Stay tuned. She's the CEO.

He's the marketing and operations guy.

If it's broken, you need the Business Fix. I don't think we're far enough in yet for me to swear yet, so I'm going to wait another 30 to 45 seconds before I start the swearing. But most companies, like companies, spend all money.

Yes, all the money.

All the money on let's get the creatives in and let's get them to write our— help us write our mission statements and our core values. And you know what I find the most ironic about that?

Yeah.

They bring in someone from the outside to tell you about you. Correct.

That never knows who you are.

Correct.

The best business consultant ever.

The person read the website and is like, this is your mission statement and core values. Now write me a very large check.

Yeah. Here's who I think you are.

Oh, I am going to give you 4 personality assessments to your leadership. I'm gonna ask 6 customers what they did. Yeah, that's, uh, yeah. How's, how's things been anyways? We're April Fools'. Happy April Fools' Day if you're listening to the day this releases. We are, we are actually— there's no fooling, we're talking about this topic.

Yes, we are.

Um, this is—

can't wait.

This is a very serious topic, um, of course coming out on April Fools' Day. Is there anything good or exciting going on? In life in general?

Life in general. I mean, I've got a senior in high school, so she's getting ready to graduate. She picked a college. We're good.

Where?

She's going to the Ohio State.

And everyone has to put the.

Well, she makes me put the now, but I'm going to say she's going to Ohio State, the Ohio State mom. So I'm like, you know, it's okay. After 22 college applications, a whole bunch of visits, a refusal to absolutely apply to Ohio State, the force of us doing that, and then the magical decision that that's where she wants to go. I'm like, wow. Aren't you glad Mom and Dad forced you to apply to one college? That it just made more sense for her. So, you know, I don't care. I don't have to be on a plane anymore.

So yeah, no, you can drive. And from where we're at, we're by Akron. Yeah, I mean, it's roughly 2 hours. It is a little under.

I mean, we won't talk about how I think it's the most painful drive in the state of Ohio, but no, Columbus to Cincinnati is much worse, um, because a lot of that's two lanes. Oh, see, by then I'm just loopy, so I don't care, right?

No, that's the Columbus to Cincinnati is much worse because like I said, it's only two lanes. That's true. Um, I remember coming home from Cincinnati one time in one of my old— I had an old like creeper van, it was great. And I was doing like 90 miles an hour just with the flow of traffic. Like, I mean, it sounded like the Millennium Falcon getting ready to come apart. I'm like, this is sketchy. Um, so yeah, it's the racetrack. It is a 90-mile-an-hour two-lane racetrack.

It's a good time.

It is. I don't— I— Columbus, I don't think is that bad.

No, no.

And it's, it's a good excuse to go down for like a day and make a good chunk out of it.

Exactly. So what about you? Anything good going on?

Uh, whether the spotty Ohio weather. I like fall spring, correct?

And then second fall spring, right?

Still though, there's winter again. Um, there's been a couple of motorcycle rides, so that's— I'm calmer now.

Okay, that's good. You weren't like my middle schooler who was like, I'm not wearing a coat at the very beginning of March, and we're like, bad, bad.

Don't put that away yet.

Don't you remember? You live— you've lived here your entire life. This is not— it's not spring, right? He's like, I'm no longer wearing pants, I'm only gonna wear shorts. And we're like, no, you're not, right?

No, you're— you're—

don't burn the pants.

Yeah, you're gonna want the pants. Yeah, uh, that being said, when we go— like, when I think about, like, the mission statement that we have as a company, for me, um, our mission is to build lasting authority and connection for businesses through high-value podcast and media production. Yeah, was that— was that read with the gravitas?

Very nice.

And I mean, for us, our, like, our core values I mean, success is a shared thing. These are super easy things to put into place.

Yeah.

For— I assume we're going to talk about Clarity.

Yeah.

What is—

Yeah, for AOI and Clarity, we solve insurance and HR headaches. That's it. Yeah, that's it. Our purpose statement: we provide peace of mind by simplifying the complicated. And then our core values, you know, service, excellence, community, and teamwork. It's really simple. Do good, be good is our motto.

Yeah, I mean, these are all very simple things. They all I, I— there are things that I know your employees can connect with.

I know they can remember and say, correct, they're not hard.

I, I mean, for us, I don't have our mission statement in my email signature. Yeah, I do have success as a shared thing in my email signature, and everyone like looks at it and they know it, they feel it, they, they, they go about it that way. Um, the ones that I love, and I brought two problem ones here, um, Facebook their mission statement. If you're driving, you may want to pull off to the side of the road and like buckle up. Facebook, or Meta now, is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.

How?

Right, right.

By polarizing everyone.

Correct, correct. Let's spread as much misinformation as we can. That is how we're going to connect people. That is how— like, I, I mean, I never feel angry after getting on Facebook. No, um, I mean, just what a load of horseshit.

Yeah, yeah.

Um, the other one that I truly love too is Walmart.

Oh yeah, they say it on their commercials though.

They say it on everything. I mean, they drill this into people's head. We help people save money so they can live better. Meanwhile, Walmart employees are— I believe now they're the second largest recipient of government benefits because they don't make enough. So you want people to live better except for your employees. And then everyone wonders why when I walk into a— I won't walk into Walmart, but when I walk into a Walmart, I leave thinking, do I walk out in front of a bus?

Yeah.

Um, I— you can't feel good about that. You just, you just, uh, it's just terrible. It's— and to me, that's that disconnect that I see in so many cases where it turns into corporate fluff or we're far enough in, I can say it now, shitty wall art.

Yes.

As you have said, the shitty wall art that so many people, they, they pay the consultants to come in and we're going to, we're going to, we're going to go ahead and creative this out. We're going to work. And that's when all the whiteboards go into the conference room and everyone gets excited.

Not all the consultants get excited. Everybody gets a new t-shirt, they get new bracelets that say the things on them, they get a hoodie. Oh yeah, new cup, right, right, right.

All these things. And of course they usually do those in a shitty way too, because in like 3 weeks you can see that's been scratched off the coffee mug, um, because someone's like, yeah, no, I don't want anything to do with this.

Yeah.

Then we've got like the flip side of this.

Yeah.

Where I know someone that has mission and vision statements for their family.

Yeah, I do. We do.

It's so funny because any post that I see from you, it's in there. It is 100% in there. I mean, it's not necessarily written out in there.

Yes.

But something of that is in there.

Yes.

Um, once again, we're gonna— the reason why I want to talk about that is obviously this is a subject that you're going to speak really well to.

Yeah. As to how to do it the right way.

Correct.

Yeah.

The problem, and what I think is great, is that you do have that. You have that as a driver in your life. And that to me is why people need the mission and vision and core value statements. Where the hell are we going? What are we doing?

Yeah.

Now, getting people to buy in, like your 12-year-old son.

Yes, who bought in when he was— I'm trying to think, when we first did this, he was, I think, 4 when we started family purpose statement, right? Yeah.

So a little bit—

he still buys in at 14. It's great.

I was about to say, a little bit easier to buy in at 4.

Well, he was a hostage. Now he's not. He's still a hostage, but it's big.

Less, less of a hostage.

18-year-old, she still, she still buys in.

So, right. So to me, the fact that you've gotten probably two of the toughest people on the planet, teenagers, to buy into this—

they do—

that, that almost speaks more than getting your employees to buy into this.

Yeah.

So that being said, um, like I said, we've seen the shitty wall art.

Yes.

Um, why do most of these fail? And I mean, why do employees do it when the boss is looking and then depending on which boss it is, and then when the boss turns around, goes away?

Yeah. So couple things. I think it's really important that we call it crappy wall art because most mission statements are written up. They're written for the owner, they're written for the board, they're written for the website. They are not—

Especially the website.

Especially the website. They are not written down to the people actually doing the work. Correct. So, if you wonder why no one buys in, it's because you wrote it up and you didn't talk to the people downstream to say, "Hey, do you know what we actually do?" So, tell me what it is you do here at Enatech. I mean, yeah. If you wanna truly understand where your organization is and you already have a mission statement, a great test is to, is to go to your team and say, hey, what do we do? What's our purpose statement or what's our mission statement? And if they've been with you for more than like 3 days and they look at you and go, uh, you have a problem.

Yes.

Yeah. And I think part of the reason we have that problem is because they fail that reality test around did they that they plan accordingly. And I would like to talk about, you know, the 3 A's of a dead mission statement.

Did you bring the letter people today?

I did not.

I'm disappointed.

I know. They're on them. They're on my fridge.

Are they on your fridge? I need photographic evidence of this. We need to like—

I'll send a photo.

We need to put that to Instagram.

And we'll put it on Instagram. Yes, they are on the fridge. So the 3 A's of a dead mission statement are authenticity, alignment, and application.

Ooh, I like those.

Yeah. So the first one, why do they die? Because it's not authentic. So the question is with authenticity is, does leadership actually Live it, right? Because if your mission statement says integrity, but leadership avoids hard conversations, the mission is dead.

Right? DOA.

Dead mission statement. So it goes right back to what we talked about in the nice leader trap. If you're nice instead of kind, you're avoiding accountability, your mission statement becomes fiction. Do you really want fiction in your mission statement? No. Employees don't read that poster, they read your behavior.

Yes.

So if your actions don't match your adjectives, your mission is marketing. Right? So let's just be honest about it. Most of the time, your mission statement doesn't mean jack to the people in the organization. It's marketing for the people outside of your organization.

Correct.

If you want it to go far, it has to do both things.

Yes.

And it markets to the people in the organization first. All right? So the second one's alignment. Super easy question. Does it connect to the work? Most mission statements are too abstract. Changing the world, driving innovation, empowering excellence. What the heck does that mean?

Those are the ones that I love because those, as I like to say, try to blow sunshine where the sun normally does not shine.

And that means jack squat to Carol, who's reconciling invoices at 4:45 on a Tuesday. Okay, changing the world. I don't think Carol gives a crap about it.

Carol does not care.

So if your mission doesn't connect to daily decisions, it can't guide behavior. So I think mission should answer, what are we doing? Who are we helping? And why does it matter today, not someday? And sometimes for the sake of simplicity, it can just be, what are we doing? I think that's perfectly fine because who you're helping is a given in your mind and a given in the mind of your team members. All right, we solve insurance and HR headaches. That is what we do. Headaches are painful. We take away pain. That's it. All right? Third is application. All right? And this is the one that I think sometimes gets hard for people. Does it show up in decisions? That's the question you're going to ask. And this is the one that the leaders often miss. So if your mission doesn't show up in how you hire, how you promote people, how you handle mistakes, and what you reward, then it's not operational. It's ornamental. It's just a stupid decoration that nobody likes.

Ornamental.

Ornamental. And if nothing changes when you take the poster down, it was a decoration. It wasn't anything of consequence. So that's my thought. Alignment, application, authenticity.

It's interesting because the, the thing that I like about the three— the AAA.

Yeah.

Um, besides the towing, is, uh, which my vehicles occasionally need, is, uh It is like you have to have all three of those pieces or else it matters zero. If one of those is missing, don't worry about the other two because they don't matter.

No, I mean, and come for me, business consultants, I do not care. As a business owner, you can easily answer these three questions.

Yes.

Does leadership actually live it? Does it connect to the work? And does it show up in decisions? You do not need a consultant to help you figure that out.

No, you know who would be the best to help you figure that out?

Who?

Who was the woman in accounting you just met? Betty?

Carol.

Carol. Ask Carol.

Ask Carol in accounting.

Yeah. If you ask Carol, she will tell you.

Yeah. Your people that have been there, your people that are in the trenches with you, they will tell you if it matches.

Yep.

Is this in alignment with what we do? And they're like, no. If we were like that, would you like being here more? Yes. Okay, now we have a target.

Yep. So how do you bridge that gap? How do you get from What, how do you get from, "We're going to change the world," to, "Put in the damn numbers, Carol." Yeah.

Move it on. You translate it. Okay. So translate, tie, and teach. Okay? So leaders think their job's to state the mission. Their real job is to translate the mission into decisions and repeat it daily.

Yes.

You make it livable. So you translate, you tie, and you teach. So translate, you take the big vision and you break it into everyday language. Instead of, "We drive innovation," you're going to say, "We solve problems faster for our clients so they can grow their business." That's it.

That makes sense.

Doesn't it? It can be simple. We provide peace of mind by simplifying the complicated. We take hard things that business owners are afraid of, HR and insurance, and we make it easy for them to do. That's it.

That's simple.

It is.

There's no buzzwords.

No, there don't need to be. And you have to think about it too. When we talk about jury trials and I'm not a lawyer, but they talk about how you have to be able to explain it to a 4th grader.

Yes.

You have to be able to explain it to a 4th grader.

Correct.

In your business.

Correct.

I understand that your people are smarter than that, but you have to make it easy for them to understand when they are emotional, when they are charged, when they're tired, make it easy.

Not only that, but sometimes we don't speak the same language. No. So if you bring it down to 4th grade level, there's a pretty good chance they're going to get it.

Exactly. So the next thing we do is tie. We connect the mission to the person's roles. So Accounting Carol, it's not just about processing numbers, she's protecting cash flow, right? Customer service isn't just answering calls, they're protecting relationships. So the people care more when they see where they fit. When you see your part, you're able to adopt the mission more easily, more willingly.

It's not just make me richer.

No, it's, it's, I need you to do these things and we all help each other. We all rise together. And then the third is to teach. So you repeat it Constantly. At 5 employees, we've talked about this before, at 5, culture is proximity. At 25, culture is repetition. You have to keep saying it. And if you're not saying it weekly, it's not sticking because a mission statement isn't declared once just by decree, everybody knows what it is. It is constantly repeated. It is taught daily.

I just like it. Here's our mission statement, memorize it.

Memorize it. No.

No, that shouldn't be homework.

No.

They should hear it enough that they should just— and they should hear it and feel it enough that it just happens.

Well, and having it visible within your— I do not have a problem with you putting it on your wall. I do not have a problem with you posting it in places where people can see. I have a problem if you do that and you don't do anything with it.

Correct.

That's it. You just have to do something with it.

Correct. It should be visible on the wall and on the faces.

In the hearts and minds of your people.

We're doing a lot of sunshiny stuff today.

But it's important. You have to make it mutual.

Yes. Oh, 100%. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. So when it's— when it's one-sided, you say it's got to be mutual.

Yeah.

And I see so many that are this big fluffy, like, we're going to change the world because the CEO is the one that's going to take the credit for all that. All the other people are going to be like, what the hell? I like— I was part of this. Why don't I get credit?

Like, or the business owner did it once 10 years ago and it's still the mission. You may not even do the same things, but it's still your mission.

Let's be honest, you did not start your business so you could spend your days buried in HR paperwork or Googling how to handle employee drama.

That's why I started Clarity HR. We're your fractional HR team, giving you real people, real support, and real solutions. Whether it's compliance headaches, hiring struggles, or just needing someone to take the people stuff off your plate, we've got your back.

So if you're ready to stop using duct tape and hope as your HR strategy and finally get some peace of mind, head over to clarityhr.com.

That's clarityhr.com. Simple, clear, and here to help.

I'll give you a few seconds to go to the website while we get ready to get back to the show. When they— when the employee says, like, why the hell am I going to buy into this changing the world? Because I know you're going to take the credit for it.

Yeah.

Why am I buying into this? What's in it for me?

Yeah.

How do you connect that for them?

So I think you have to make it mutual. I mean, you know, most mission statements can be one-sided, so it's really about asking the employees and like, what do you need? What do you want? So you've got to be collaborative with it. And I know for us as an organization, we go through, we look at our mission and purpose quarterly and say, is it still aligned? And we go, yep, still aligns. Does— do our core values still align? I mean, not everybody does things the same way that we do, but we run on a cadence where we're just looking at it. And every year when we do our— we do a 2-day retreat with our leadership team, we're really taking that point to home. But I would say when you're translating it to your team, you want to be simple, specific, and shared. Yeah, super easy. So if people can't remember it, they can't repeat it.

Correct.

Short beats clever every time. I know as an insurance brokerage, there are other brokerages that are like, transforming the world one digital footprint at a time, one blah blah blah. I'm like, come on, we solve insurance and HR headaches. Like, we do not have to make— stop making it sound so fancy and hard.

This is not a glamorous thing.

No, we provide peace of mind by simplifying complicated. We take things that people go, "Oh," and we make them nice. So simple, make it repeatable, make it clear what success actually looks like. Solving a headache, shared. I think this is where clarity kind of leans in sometimes too. This is where you do things with success as a shared thing. So if the mission only benefits revenue ownership and growth metrics, employees are going to disengage. If the mission improves their work, their stress, their development, solves a problem so they are truly helping a customer, they buy in. Right?

100%.

If your mission doesn't make employees' lives better, it's not going to make your business better. And then specific, vague missions don't guide behavior, right?

No, because how am I supposed to change the world?

Make it clear exactly what success looks like.

The world's changed. The world has changed.

The world has changed.

That's how I'm successful. The world has now changed and I'm done. I'm going to punch out and go home.

Thanks. No, it's not how it works. So I talked a little about the visioning piece of how you put it together. Let's talk about operations. So Josh—

that's me.

Yeah, it is you. And I know because both of us have been in meetings with people who have terrible mission, vision, and values.

Oh God, yes.

Whether it has been organizations that we volunteered in, organizations that we have worked for, organizations that we've consulted for, they're just I think we just have a lot of trauma around it, but I know I do. Well put.

Well put.

How do you take a mission statement and actually operationalize it? So like making sure that marketing promise isn't just creating more cognitive dissonance for the team and they're not banging their head against the wall.

Yeah, because I have a wonderful example of this.

I'm sure you do. I can't wait to hear it.

There's times where we are in, like where someone says, like I've been in company meetings and they've said their mission and vision statements. And I start looking around the room like, am I, am I in the right place?

Right?

Am I somehow in the wrong place?

Oh my gosh.

To me, the biggest thing is like the— you have to look at your operating procedures and make sure that they are aligned with the mission. Too many people are like, okay, for our operating procedures, we are going from point A to point B. Yeah, as quick as we can. And that may completely bypass your actual mission. Like, if your mission is quality first, but your operational stuff is geared towards get, get it done, get it done, get it done, get it done, get it done. And I see it so many times where people talk about like, hey, quality is job number one and we're stamping out 15,000 of these an hour.

Do more, right? Um, that's not aligned, right?

So it's making sure that your operations align with what you're trying to say. Because the problem is, is everyone says we want be customer service number one, right? But do you do things to make customer service number one, or do you just say once again, speed, speed, speed? The same thing is realize that you don't need to be the Rolex, you don't need to be the Rolls-Royce, you don't need to be this top-end quality. There's room for all sorts of different levels of quality. Yeah, not— there's a reason why I probably, besides the numbers involved with it. Why I don't drive a Rolls-Royce. There is a reason why I don't have a Rolex, and probably why I wouldn't ever have a Rolex. It's just not what matters to me. It's not what's important to me. It's about delivering the right value for the right customers.

Yes.

So make sure that your SOPs align with that. Um, every SOP should have a why attached to it. Like, like every piece of that SOP, you should be able to tie back to the mission and say, how does the— how does this affect this? How does this play in with our mission statement? Does it fix it? Does it do the things? So many times it does not. Go ahead.

Well, and I was going to say, I had an example. I was on the way here, I was hearing, so Klarna, the online company, last year they decided they were going to be operationally efficient, got rid of all their customer service people and automated it. Now they are slowly bringing customer service people back. Service was one of the things that's in their, core values. So it's like when you're going to make an operational decision, can you also make sure that you're aligned with your values as you're doing it? Because we care about the customer and we got rid of all of the customer service people that could help answer the customer questions. Like, oh, this is a problem. The fact that it took them a year to figure out that it was a bad idea, I got questions. But I think it goes to your point, you got to be aligned.

Yeah, you have to. Every decision you need to look and does this fit with this? Otherwise, you're making knee-jerk random decisions. To me, it's the, the other piece to that that so many people miss is if you don't have the operating procedures in place, yes, you're not repeatable. Therefore, like, if you— I, I give McDonald's as an example because especially if you've watched the, the movie about Ray Kroc, you realize it's great how ridiculous he was about this, but that's what it took to build that empire. That is, yes, that is the reason why he totally changed fast food.

Yes.

McDonald's does not have the best burger.

No, but it's consistent.

You know exactly what you're going to get, and it doesn't matter if you get it here or on the other side of the country. You are going to get the exact same thing.

Yes.

Your SOPs need to set that up within your mission. Now, the other thing that I like about this too, and you made a great point to it, is most companies, they market their sparkly new mission to the world. Before they sell it to their team. And even they give their team the sweatshirt and they think that's how you market it to them.

They'll get it by osmosis. If everyone's wearing the same shirt, they'll read it enough and then they'll like it. That's not true. It doesn't work that way.

If it's on every coffee mug in this facility.

Yeah. You know where everybody else also wears the same thing? Prison. Don't do that. Just saying.

Yeah, don't put numbers on, on your— so yeah, I mean, to me, the, the problem is, is so many people, they market stuff at the last minute. And this is marketing across the board. I see it all the time. There's an event coming up. Oh, we should market this. You're a week out from your event. Like, you needed to start marketing this a year ago.

Yeah.

The way that you are going to market this is by scaling the truth within your company. It starts with the message internally and once again has to go down by osmosis. And then you can give them the mug.

Yes.

Don't give them the mug first.

No.

Make them feel it and then give them the mug where they're going to be like, oh, hey, the saying on this seems to be— it seems to describe this place. Not they get the mug and go, who the hell is this about? Oh, us.

I don't believe that.

It's the— and the test that I always like to do is like the eyes test, the spark test. Is it like if you walk into a customer service, a customer-first place?

Yeah.

And everyone looks, looks like they're 5 minutes away from putting a hole in the wall that's shaped a lot like them.

Yeah.

And I mean, I see it. I'm going to use some of the, the— some once again bank examples. Um, you see some tellers like, oh, I'm going to try and look busy so I don't have to take care of this guy. Now granted, it could just be because I'm walking in the bank and they're like, they don't want to take care of me.

But you always ask questions, right?

Right. Why, why, how did the decimal point get this far to the right? But really, you see it all the time in the way that people approach things. Um, recently, I mean, it was at a restaurant. No one was at the front. They talked about how it's supposed to be a great time there. There was no hosts or host or hostess at the front. Yeah. And I'm like, wow, I mean, to not be greeted when I walked in the door by like, hi, thanks for coming on in. Once again, I'm instantly like, okay, their mission about this doesn't work. Once again, if the marketing says we care, your Klarna example is perfect for this. If their marketing is like, we care about you, please continue to hold. It drives me nuts when I call someplace and they're like, we care about your business, please continue to hold. And I'm like, you've said that every 15 seconds for the last 38 minutes. I don't care how nice the person is on the other end of the line, they are getting an earful.

Yes.

Um, so yeah, it's one of those things where if your marketing says we care and the operation is 30 minutes on hold, you're not only telling your customers that your mission doesn't matter, your internal people are the same thing. 100% the same thing. Because if you're willing to tell your customers the most, like the probably the second most important people this.

Yes.

It drives me absolutely nuts. Now, on the flip side of this, I'm going to talk about a local grocer, Leach's Meats and Sweets.

Okay.

I walk in, people there, hey, how's it going?

Yeah.

They all jokingly kind of complain, ah, it's another day at work.

Yeah.

They're happy to see you.

You can tell they like being there.

Right. Yes.

Right.

They would— would they rather be at home on the couch watching Netflix?

Maybe.

Yes, in the same sense you go walking in there and they're like, hey, good to see you. Totally, totally different mindset. Yeah, I mean, it's once again— and you walk in, it's palpable. Yeah, um, they're, they're yelling from across the room, hey, how's it going? And I mean, yes, there's this palpable feeling of like, oh, they genuinely care about the service they offer. We don't see that in so many places that say they actually, actually care. The other thing is you have to be like, you have to put the return on investment in the mission.

Yeah.

How does it— like, the mission has to remove what I like to call the operational debt or fires from the employees.

Okay.

Same thing you alluded to with this. Just from an operational standpoint, it is the— if we do this, this is going to make your job easier or this is going to make your job more fulfilling if we keep this in mind. We are constantly looking at moving things around, moving tasks around in our organization. We— I mean, there's certain— there's certain ones that like editing more, there's certain ones that write— like writing more, there's certain ones that like the social media side more. Do they all still have to do some of the same stuff? Yes, there's— there's— they're all doing the three main things, but we're trying to weight them accordingly to make sure that, oh hey, you really enjoy this, well, I want to make sure that you do this. This. Um, that is making sure that they're successful in this. And it's that once again, we're still accomplishing that mission. We're taking the roadblocks out, we're doing those other things. I am excited to talk about our little collaborative pieces here because I think these are going to end up being hilarious. Yeah, the, the poster on the audit. Yeah, I know. I occasionally send to you some of those demotivational things.

I love those.

Um, those are some of those demotivational posters are my favorite. I still remember I was like 10 years old and someone at my dad's, uh, office had one that said— it had all the hands in the center— teamwork, because none of us is as dumb as all of us. As soon as I saw that, I thought, yes. So hopefully if you have those posters up in your office as satire, great. Don't look at those. But my question is, is like, if you took down— if you took the mission statement down today, yeah, would anything change? Like, if you took that poster off the wall, would anything change? Um, it— or if, like, you— could you easily change your mission statement 180 degrees?

Because if you can change it 180 degrees, that wasn't a mission statement in the first place. It was never there.

That's my thought.

Yeah, I'm the same way. It's not like, is it operational or is it optional, I think is the discussion thought. And my piece is if we take it off the wall and I'm like, hey, what's our purpose statement? And they can't say it, then that tells me that I haven't done a good job because we talk about it all the time as an organization. So I think that it's really about if you're not modeling what you mandate, if you're not continuing to repeat it and scale it, that's where the issue is. Like, it's just wall art if you don't do the things around it. So if you're a small business owner navigating the world of marketing or looking to establish yourself as an industry expert, you already know the power of a great podcast.

But getting it all right from the sound of the strategy can be a headache. And that's where Pedal Stopper Productions comes in. We're the team behind The Business Fix and Chrissy Myers' Better Business for Small Business Leaders podcast.

One of the things I love about what you do, Josh, is that you're always willing to help out. And part of that is with your free 30-minute no-pitch podcast consultation.

That's right. 30 minutes of our best tips, tricks, and podcasting basics. Absolutely. Completely no strings attached, just podcasting insights to help you crush your goals. Visit pedalstopperproductions.com to book your no-pitch call today. That is pedalstopperproductions.com.

And now back to the show.

100. No, I, I wholeheartedly agree, and I see where people are like, okay, we're changing our mission statement. And I'm like, okay, you can do that. Mission statements should never change in my book though. They should evolve.

I agree.

You can—

I agree.

10 degrees? Sure. More than 10 degrees?

You should be making 2-millimeter shifts at the most. And if you're like, I would think if I went in and I said, I'm going to blow up our mission statement or purpose statement, they'd be like, why? Like, we know. We like it. We don't know why. What are you going to do? And I'm like, no, no, no, no. There would be, I think there'd be some confusion and questions. They might do it because we've got a lot of trust, but there's no reason to. I want friction around we need to be something different. If you go, we're changing the statement and they're like, well, we didn't even know it was in the first place. Congratulations, you're a failure.

You have shitty wall art.

Nobody cares. That's the issue is ask yourself, do people even care?

Yeah.

And if people— if you're like, no, I don't think anybody would care, that's a problem.

Yeah. Throw out the coffee mugs.

Yeah.

And the hoodies. Have a big hoodie burning party out in the parking lot.

Yes. Yeah. I mean, I think a great— again, I said it earlier— a great gauge of where your employee engagement is, is do you know our purpose statement? Do you know our mission statement? Whichever one you use. We use them. We use both. If you can quiz people and they can tell you, or they can give you a good a good summary of what you do, you're winning. If they're like— if they look at you and then go back to their work, or they like— you can tell they're like deer in the headlights, you have a problem.

Yeah.

And don't hire a consultant to fix that problem. It's your problem.

Yours.

If you need guidance on it, fine, but somebody else cannot tell you what you do.

No, no, it's got to be you.

No, you get so frustrated. Let As someone who has paid a lot of consultants and I get frustrated at some point in time because I look at them and I go, you don't know my business the way I do. And they go, crap.

Yeah.

I've done that several times.

The other thing is too, is like you ask the people that do the things.

Yes.

Like the consultants that you need are the ones that you're already paying on a weekly basis.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah. And the ones that help you shape the path, but they're not like, this is not, they're not going to come down from a mountain with stone tablets and give you something new and earth-shattering. It's not going to happen.

All I could think of was Michael Scott declaring bankruptcy at that point. "I declare bankrupt." Yeah. Speaking of which, hopefully that's not the case because what I want to ask about, mission statement, vision statements, $1 million, $10 million, they the same?

Core doesn't change, but you have to deepen your clarity. All right? So at $1 million, the mission is intuitive, and at $10 million, it has to be intentional.

I agree.

So more people means more interpretation, and more interpretation creates more inconsistency. So you have to be really consistent. We used to have a longer mission statement. We don't anymore.

There is a reason why I talk about operations and building the operations no matter where you're at, because once again, if you are open to interpretation, that's where you run into issues when you are scaling from 1 to 10 to 20 million. Is that's where you're going to get those issues.

Yes.

Um, the other one that I like too is— I— then this is why we— once again, I always joke that you have this clear and kind way of saying things, and I am direct.

Yeah. There—

I don't want to say synonyms. Um, people like— most people would probably rather have the 'here you go' from you rather than the slap in the face from me.

You hand it to them.

Yeah. I slap them around with it like it's dead fish.

Yeah, yeah, you do.

That being said, I, I know my answer. Why do you feel a short, maybe a little bit ugly, and honest mission statement is better than the long, beautiful, like, woo-woo, the woo-woo statement?

Yeah, fluff feels good in a room.

It doesn't.

No, it does. It feels good in the room when you're dealing with a board or you're dealing with people that like I just want you to feel smart. It's fine. It feels good for a second. Directness really works in the real world and it works with your people. So, I mean, the prettier the mission statement, probably the more impressed your board is going to be. Honest ones really guide behavior.

Yeah. I see it.

And less snark and sarcasm. Like, I have an airline one. You can guess who it is. I don't know. I do know who it is, but I'm not going to say because I don't need them to yell at me. "To connect the world, creating opportunities, fostering understanding, expanding horizons by connecting people and communities to each other and their own potential." How about you just say, "We help people get where they need to go." What is that for?

Fly the airplane.

Fly the damn airplane.

Yeah, no, to me, when I see stuff like that, I instantly, and I'm just going to say this flatly, my bullshit meter just gets pegged.

It's fluff. It is. It's fluff. Really? Because I waited on hold for 45 minutes on Sunday because you couldn't connect to an operator.

I'm not feeling real connected here. Not feeling real connected here. No, I totally— and I mean, obviously, like, I'm not gonna have a fluffy statement about anything. No, um, no. If someone— I guarantee if I made a fluffy statement about something, people would be like, are you feeling okay? Are you having the stroke? Um, so yeah, that to me— and it's one of those things where if it's fluffy, you can't execute on it.

No.

If it's direct, I can execute on direct things. I cannot execute on fluff.

No.

Unicorns are not executing. I mean—

Be direct.

Yeah.

Like, we develop technology that keeps people moving. That makes sense.

Sure.

That's not fluffy.

No.

It's Goodyear.

Yeah.

That's it.

Yep.

Simple.

A couple of key takeaways. Yeah. I love the coffee shop test. Ask them what the company's goal is in their own words. Yeah, I'm okay if they mangle the statement as long as they have the idea. As long as I can draw a line from point A to point B without too many curves. Yeah, I'm good with it.

Yeah, we take care of people's HR and insurance issues. That's fine. Yep, I like that.

Yep, I mean, we help them create quality podcasts to get the content out. Great, love it.

I'd say combat the 3 A's of a dead mission statement. Make sure you have authenticity, alignment, and application.

Yes, yes. Now from that, in those audits, what you're doing, make sure that you are incentivizing the behaviors that fit with your mission statement and not being like, hey, um, do like be really, really good to people as quickly as you can.

Yeah, duh. Translate, tie, and teach your mission statement for it to stick. Yep, super simple.

Oh, that is— it is. And to me, make sure, like, success is a shared thing is our core value. And once again, make sure that the mission includes the team, not just you.

Yeah, great mission statements are simple, specific, and shared.

Love it. Uh, core values versus mission statement— which is more important for a 10-person team?

Core values, because they drive behavior.

Yeah, no, I—

mission sets direction. Yeah, value sets decision.

Brilliant jerk. Yeah, can they ever, can they ever like be aligned with your mission?

Temporarily.

I agree.

Behavior always exposes alignment eventually.

Yeah, because they'll come in and for like the first 6 months you're like, "Wow, this person's great." And then 6 months later you're like, "I hate them." Yeah.

Josh, what's the cringiest mission statement you've ever heard?

Hershey's. Undisputed marketplace leadership. What the hell does that mean? How does that tie to chocolate?

I don't know.

Undisputed marketplace leadership.

How long have they had that?

I don't know.

I'm gonna Google how long they've had that. Maybe they've had it forever.

When I saw that, I was like, seriously? At that point, I'm like, because that to me, I go back to Pinky and the Brain.

Yeah.

Come, brain, we have a mission.

Take over the world.

Yeah. Nerf. I just, I'm like, yeah. Uh, that being said, make sure your mission statement actually is your mission. Mission and make sure it's also your employees' mission. If you want them to buy in, they need to be a part of it. Uh, thank you to everyone that has come along for this ride. Next week is episode 50, which we're both really excited about. We're gonna bring you— it's gonna be a celebration. We are bringing you in on that, so make sure you show up for that. Um, businessfixpodcast.com. Um, and then as always, go to the website, share this with a friend, or just maybe share it with your boss.

Yeah, or the marketing consultant you hired to do your mission statement.

Any one of those people. Do us a favor, take care of yourself. If you can, take care of someone else. We will see you very, very soon.